Could the EU referendum result be clinched in Leeds? Tense wait at Arena for regional Yorkshire tally

It was all about chewed nails and bleary eyes in the early hours of this morning as voters in Leeds waited along with the nation for the results of the EU referendum.
Polling station on Calverley Lane, Bramley. Pictures: Tony JohnsonPolling station on Calverley Lane, Bramley. Pictures: Tony Johnson
Polling station on Calverley Lane, Bramley. Pictures: Tony Johnson

The city’s 358 polling stations closed at 10pm last night, with the usual last minute rush before the deadline and the start of a frantic regional count at the first direct Arena.

Leeds will be the counting base for 21 local authorities in the region, including itself.

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The final count for Yorkshire and the Humber - currently expected to be announced at around 6am - will then be fed into the national total.

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And with a total electorate in the region of almost four million - and ours expected to be one of the last areas to declare - it is not inconceivable that the Yorkshire and Humber vote could be the clincher for the whole referendum result.

The atmosphere in the Arena was electric as the first few national results started trickling through.

This was further fuelled by some huge turnouts, including 81 per cent in Craven and a huge victory for Leave in Sunderland with 61 percent of the vote.

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The ever swinging national Brexit-ometer also added to the tension.

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Ahead of the crucial count, the Yorkshire Evening Post spoke to voters in Beeston and Calverley as they exited polling stations at St Anthony’s Church and Parkside Primary School nursery.

Of eight people we spoke to in the two areas, six said they had voted to remain, and two had opted to leave.

Young Beeston mum Cataria Robinson said: “I voted to stay in because I think it will mean a better future.

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“I hope that whatever happens, the Government will make the right decisions for the future and not for now. It needs to be over a long period of time. It’s going to take a long time for any changes to set in anyway.”

Alex Payne, a passionate remainer, said he had a deep mistrust for the leading voices in the ‘leave’ camp.

“We couldn’t do it alone before the war, I don’t see how we can do it after,” he added of his strong support for the ‘in’ camp. “Economically, we need the EU. I don’t care about the immigration issue, immigration has been wonderful for this country. And I think the scaremongering has been a disgrace.”

Asked to make a prediction, he said: “I’m probably going to lose sleep on it. I feel very passionately about remaining and I couldn’t call it, I might as well toss a coin.”

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Kauser Pervez, also a remain voter in Beeston, said the benefits of trading within a block of countries was a key factor of him.

Meanwhile an 88-year-old gentleman in Calverley, who asked not to be named, said he had voted to leave “because I object to being told what I can do and what I can’t do by a gang of foreign bureaucrats”.

The future impact of either an in or out decision on young people was on the minds of many voters.

One Beeston grandmother said she was voting leave because “I have got grandchildren and there’s nothing in this country for them”.

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She also cited the fact her husband had lost out on a cleaning job in a hospital to “two foreign people who couldn’t speak a word of English”.

She said: “Our grandchildren are teenagers now and what is there for them? There’s no steelworks, there’s no mines. [A Brexit} will make our Government sit up and think.”

However Christine Massey, another grandmother, said: “I voted to remain because I believe in free movement of people around Europe.

“I think Britain would go backwards if we leave the EU and I am doing it for the future really, for my grandchildren.”