UPDATED: ITV Predicts 75 Percent Chance of 'Leave' Winning Brexit Vote
Sterling down on the news.
Results from the United Kingdom's referendum on membership in the European Union is almost halfway in, and the "Leave" side leads by more than 500,000 votes with 200 out of 382 districts reporting.
ITV News now predicts the "Leave" side has a 75 percent chance of winning the vote.
The sterling plummeted on news of the first "Leave" friendly vote, especially in Sunderland, which went almost 2 to 1 in favor of Leave:
As Stephanie Slade noted, bookmakers in the U.K. had odds in favor of "Remain" by 3 to 1.
Tyler Kotesky argued earlier today why Americans shouldn't fear a "Leave" vote:
It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to free themselves from an ossified, undemocratic power structure. It's a chance for the U.K. to look beyond the continent's economic stagnation and embrace the rest of the world through free trade and fairer immigration. It's also a chance to give other EU members a fighting chance at reforming their system. Americans should embrace all of that.
Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump landed in Scotland today to open a golf course. He is not expected to attend any political meetings but has media availability tomorrow at which he is expected to comment on the Brexit vote. Trump's been supportive of the Leave vote before, but walked back his comments later. "I don't think anybody should listen to me because I haven't really focused on it very much," he said on Fox Business Wednesday.
The weather was also exceedingly poor in London, which some BBC analysts say could depress the "Remain" vote. Prime Minister David Cameron (who backed Remain) is expected to exercise Article 50 if "Leave" wins the vote, triggering negotiations with the European Union on an exit for the United Kingdom, though some pro-Leave Conservatives argue against exercising Article 50 since the referendum was a rejection of the Lisbon Treaty that it's in. "A new general election is not impossible," Jacob Rees-Mogg, a pro-Leave Conservative member of Parliament, said on BBC tonight.
We'll have final results up on the blog later!