Peterborough overwhelmingly backs Brexit on turnout of over 70 per cent

Referendum Count at Kingsgate Centre for Peterborough. Stewart Jackson, Wayne Fitzgerald and John Peach - from the Leave campaign

On a turnout of 72.4 per cent, 53,216 voted to leave, as opposed to 34,176 who wanted to remain.

In addition, 77 ballot papers were rejected.

There was a high expectation that the city would back leaving the EU, with a previous YouGov poll suggesting it was the second most eurosceptic place in the UK.

The count at the KingsGate Conference Centre has kept everyone entertained with a live national broadcast playing out as the votes were counted.

The early result in Sunderland, which was an overwhelming win for Leave, drew cheers from Brexit campaigners who were expecting a big win in Peterborough.

Nationally, the result looks increasingly hard to call.

The result in Peterborough brought some celebration from Leave supporters and few niggly words afterwards, but the atmosphere was fairly muted with the obvious to all long in advance.

And campaigners cleared out of the venue very quickly after the result to go and get some sleep after a long day.