The leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), Nigel Farage, has declared victory in his campaign for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.
“Dawn is breaking on an independent United Kingdom. This will be a victory for real people, a victory for ordinary people, a victory for decent people,” he said.
Farage also said the self-declared victory was achieved ”without a bullet being fired,” crediting instead the “damned hard work on the ground” by advocates of a separation from the EU.
“Let June 23rd go down in our history as our independence day,” he told news cameras.
Just over half the votes have now been counted, the decision is still balanced on a knife’s edge, with votes to leave unexpectedly opening up a gap over votes to remain. Bookmaker Ladbrokes is calling it “the craziest” political betting market in history.
As polling stations closed the evening of June 23, Farage was far from optimistic about the odds of a Brexit. He said he thought the “remain” camp would ”edge it” because of a large increase in voter registration. Farage at the time said that no matter the result of the referendum, he and his party were “going nowhere.”
But Farage’s tweets tracked his changing sentiment as the results rolled in.