Scotland on course to vote Remain in EU referendum

Counting underway at Grangemouth Sports Complex

East Renfrewshire has the highest support so far in favour of staying in the European Union with 74.3% with Renfrewshire close behind at 64.8% in favour.

Glasgow City declared 66.6& in favour of Remain with 33.4% backing Brexit however turnout in Scotland’s largest city was low at 56.3%.

Orkney was the first council area in Scotland to declare with 63% backing remain while Clackmannanshire was also quick to announce results with 57.8% voting to stay in the European Union.

Dundee, Midlothian, Shetland, Inverclyde Western Isles and West Dunbartonshire have also backed Remain.

Scotland’s former First Minister Alex Salmond told the BBC that he expected 60% of the country to vote in Remain while early results in England indicate backing for Brexit.

EU referendum results by Scottish council area

After 100 turnouts declared out of 382, the UK-wide average is 71.6%.

Nigel Farage, leader of UKIP and Vote Leave campaigner, talks to the media outside his local polling station. Picture: Getty

A survey by YouGov showed that Remain had won by 52 per cent to 48 per cent after speaking to 3,000 voters. The pollsters had previously surveyed the same cohort of voters on Wednesday and recorded a slight swing of 2 per cent to Remain. UKIP leader Nigel Farage last night appeared to concede defeat admitting it “looks like ‘Remain’ will edge it”.

Pollsters Ipsos Mori have Remain at 54% following analysis from yesterday and today - a bigger lead than that projected by YouGov’s poll.

Results from Newcastle and Sunderland suggest that the vote will be as close as some polls have predicted.

From the 134,400 votes cast in Sunderland, Leave received 82,394 and Remain polled 51,930 while in Newcastle was closer than expected with Remain at 50.70% and Leave at 49.30%.

Leave.EU co-founder Arron Banks said: “I was more interested in the result from Newcastle because that was nearly 50/50.

“That’s a metropolitan, Labour city with a big student population. That’s a very bad result for In.”

However, he did admit he was surprised by the scale of the victory for Leave in Sunderland.

“Yes,” he said.

“Sunderland is more natural territory for us but that’s a wholesale rejection of the Labour Party by its voters.”

Asked if the result had made him more hopeful of an overall Leave victory, he said: “I was never like Nigel - I have never conceded.”

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