Scots vote to stay in UK

Scotland has chosen to stay in the United Kingdom (UK), spurning independence in a historic referendum that had worried allies and investors, results showed on Friday with more than two thirds of the vote declared. Scotland’s final verdict on the union should be clear within 2 hours. Supporters of the UK have won 54 per cent of the vote, according to Reuters calculations, and that share could climb. The independence camp conceded that it had come up short. ‘Like thousands of others across the country I’ve put my heart and soul into this campaign and there is a real sense of disappointment that we’ve fallen narrowly short of securing a yes vote,’ Scottish Nationalist Party deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon said. ‘It looks as if it’s not quite been enough and that’s deeply disappointing,’ Sturgeon said on Friday. Though the nationalists won Scotland’s biggest city, Glasgow, they failed to meet expectations in a clutch of other constituencies. Breaking apart the United Kingdom has worried allies, investors and the entire British elite whose leaders rushed late in the campaign to check what opinion polls showed was a surge in support for independence, report BBC and Reuters.