Months of campaigning for the UK’s EU referendum have come to a frenetic climax as rival camps criss-crossed the country in a desperate last-minute push for the winning line.
With polling stations opening across the UK at 7am on Thursday, a flurry of eve-of-referendum polls suggested the result is still too close to call, with TNS giving the Brexit camp a 43 per cent - 41 per cent advantage, Opinium Research putting Leave ahead by 45 per cent to 44 per cent, and FTI Consulting giving Remain the edge by 51.4 per cent to 48.6 per cent once "don't knows" are stripped out.
British prime minister David Cameron campaigned on Wednesday alongside Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green figures in a cross-party Remain battle-bus tour, which saw former prime minister John Major denounce the Leave campaign as "the gravediggers of our prosperity".
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‘Independence day’
Leave standard-bearer Boris Johnson kicked off the last day of the campaign with a visit to Billingsgate fish market in London, before flying across the country to tell voters that June 23rd can be “independence day”.
He posed for selfies and signed autographs from Maldon in Essex to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, where he was heckled by 17-year-old Will Taylor, who said: “I’m annoyed that I can’t vote and as a young person it’s my future.”
Wrapping up his whirlwind tour in Darlington, the former London mayor said the Leave campaign was “on the verge of victory”, as he urged voters to “believe in our country” and back Brexit despite the warnings of “Project Fear”.
"This will not come again," said Mr Johnson. "Vote leave tomorrow, take back control of our country and our democracy and stick up for hundreds of millions of people around Europe who agree with us, who agree that the EU is going in the wrong direction."
Mr Cameron joined Labour’s former PM Gordon Brown, former TUC boss Brendan Barber and Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron at a rally in Birmingham, where he told voters: “We are stronger, we are better off, we are safer in a reformed EU and that’s why we should vote Remain tomorrow in the largest possible numbers.”
‘Choice of a lifetime’
The prime minister said the referendum vote was “a choice of a lifetime” and voters should “think of your children and your grandchildren ... we don’t want to cut them off from opportunity, cut them off from the world, we want to give them the best chance. That’s why we should vote Remain tomorrow.”
The Remain campaign could be summed up in the word “together”, Mr Cameron said, adding: “There’s no problem we are facing in our world today or facing in our country today that isn’t helped by working together.”
Insisting he was “passionate and ... wildly patriotic” about the UK, Mr Cameron said: “The sort of Great Britain I want - an even greater country - doesn’t walk away, it doesn’t quit, it stands and it fights.”
Mr Cameron said his wartime predecessor Winston Churchill “didn’t give up on European democracy ... He didn’t walk away and we shouldn’t walk away now”.
But Mr Johnson said it was “time to break away from the failing and dysfunctional EU system”, telling activists in Maldon: “I do think that we are on the verge, possibly, of an extraordinary event in the history of our country and indeed in the whole of Europe.
“It’s all going to be about getting our supporters out to vote and if we do it I really think tomorrow can be independence day.”
Mr Cameron also insisted he expects to remain prime minister even if voters choose Brexit, telling the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “I will accept the instructions of the British people and get to work on Friday morning to deliver them.”
Mr Johnson - touted by many as a potential replacement if Mr Cameron is forced to step down - agreed that the prime minister should “stay under any circumstances”.
British flag
Ukip leader Nigel Farage told his final event of the campaign in London: “At the end of the day tomorrow when people vote they have to make a decision - which flag is theirs? I want us to live under British passports and under the British flag.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn - who has been accused of campaigning in a half-hearted way - urged the party’s supporters to “get out on to the streets” and persuade people to vote Remain.
He attacked the Leave camp for its focus on immigration, saying: “Don’t blame the migrant worker for being exploited, blame the company that’s exploiting them.”
Meanwhile prominent Leave campaigner Michael Gove was forced to say sorry after comparing economists who have warned of the dangers of Brexit to scientists in the pay of the Nazis who smeared Albert Einstein in the 1930s.
After a scathing slapdown from Mr Cameron - who said his old friend and Cabinet colleague appeared to have “lost it” - Mr Gove acknowledged that his comment was “clumsy and inappropriate” and apologised for giving offence.
Mr Gove made the comments after the Economists for Remain group issued a warning from more than 175 experts, including 12 Nobel Prize winners, that Brexit would make a recession “significantly more likely”.
The Leave campaign was based on “dangerous fantasies” and misleading claims about the impact of immigration, they said.
Irish reaction
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said that if the UK leaves the EU following tomorrow's referendum it will have an impact on Ireland, but he is hopeful that it would not cause too many problems.
“If the trigger is pulled on Thursday, it doesn’t take place for two years.”
He told RTÉ’s Today with Sean O’Rourke show that the UK equivalent of the ESRI had done research which indicated there would be a fall in GDP in the UK and for trading partners.
“It will have an effect, but I still hope the figures might not be too bad and that we will still have money for the rainy day fund.”
Irish musicians U2 and actor Liam Neeson have also backed a remain vote, saying a vote to leave the EU could damage progress in Northern Ireland.
U2 posted on Facebook: "For Irish voters in Britain, don't go we'd miss you … Europe without Britain seems unimaginable to us. Bono, Edge, Adam, Larry."
Liam Neeson also urged voters remain in the EU: “A UK exit would have the worst ramifications for the island of Ireland. Economically, this would be a backwards step for Ireland.
“Border controls would be implemented to allegedly stop illegal immigrants coming into the UK through the back door. Trade will be enormously impacted.
“It would be truly a shame to sacrifice all the progress that has been made by the peace process regarding border controls. There is strength in unity. A Brexit vote will make us weak. I urge you to go out and vote to remain in the EU.”
Jo Cox murder
The referendum will take place a week after the murder of pro-EU Labour MP Jo Cox, which raised questions about the tone of an increasingly bitter campaign.
Some polls published since Ms Cox’s murder have suggested a swing towards Remain, though often within the margin of error.
EU leaders, while unanimously urging the UK to stay in, are already skirmishing over whether the right response to a Brexit would be closer integration of the remaining members or a rethink of the way Europe is governed.
The EU would have to weather the exit of its second largest economy, the only European financial capital to rival New York and one of its only two nuclear powers, while the UK’s economy could stall.
Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon said Brexit could also trigger another independence referendum in the country, if Scots backed staying in the EU but were dragged out by the English.
Agencies