WORCESTERSHIRE convincingly backed Brexit after a night of drama at the polls - with one of Britain's most significant Leave victories secured in Worcester.

On a bumper 73 per cent turnout - the biggest in Worcester since the boundaries were redrawn 19 years ago - 53.6 per cent of backed Leave compared to 46.4 per cent Remain.

The result, declared shortly after 3am this morning, was seen across the UK as one of Britain's most crucial outcomes in England's bellwether city.

The Worcester result led to a domino-style effect across Worcestershire with all six counting areas in the county declaring for Leave too including Malvern, Wychavon, Kidderminster, Bromsgrove and Redditch.

The city's outcome led to an outpouring of joy from UKIP activists gathered at the Guildhall count but despair among Conservative and Labour ranks, both of whom pointed the finger of blame at each other.

In Worcester Leave's 53 per cent tally worked out at 29,114 votes, while Remain got 25,125.

During a tense count it soon became clear that Leave support was surging in traditional Labour heartlands across the city with big majorities across Gorse Hill, Rainbow Hill, Warndon and Nunnery.

Remain got the most votes in Arboretum and Claines, and also won Battenhall by 10 per cent, but the writing appeared on the wall when Leave scored big results in St Peter's and St Stephen, 'won' Warndon Parish North by just nine votes, and pushed St John's all the way to a recount.

The end result led to an emotional scenes on both sides of the hotly-contested campaign.

A visibly devastated Councillor Adrian Gregson, the leader of Worcester City Council, appeared to blame the Prime Minister.

"It's disastrous - I do think we've been led down a path we should never have been led down," he said.

"The language, the vitriol in this campaign has been completely unacceptable.

"The characterisation by Nigel Farage of this being a 'war', a battle is completely undemocratic - and the results in Worcester, Worcestershire and nationally makes everything more difficult for governments at any level.

"This will do nothing to stop immigration or create jobs, it's an insular little England approach that takes us back to the dark ages."

Worcester MP Robin Walker said: "The implosion of Labour's vote in their core areas of the city in very large numbers gave us this.

"Labour has lost out in England and now it's losing voters to Brexit - but the result is concerning to anyone who like the moderate middle ground of politics.

"I've always known Worcester was Eurosceptic, indeed I'm that myself and I knew it was always likely to be tough, but it's not the outcome I wanted."

But UKIP figurehead James Goad called the result "absolutely staggering".

"I wasn't expecting that clear a margin, it was really all down to the Labour vote and Labour losing their working class heartlands to Leave voters," he said.

"I'm absolutely ecstatic, this will send multiple shockwaves to the political establishment.

"It will turn things upside down and I think this will ultimately turn out to be very good for the country."

In Malvern Hills, there were 25,294 votes to Leave and 23,203 to Remain - turnout was 80.6 per cent.

In Wychavon, which didn't declare until after 4am, Leave romped home with 44,201 votes to Remain's 32,188.

As it became clear Leave would win the day, UKIP leader Nigel Farage hailed it as the UK's "independence day" but the Remain camp called it a "catastrophe".

Across the UK Leave won by 52 per cent of the vote compared to 48 for Remain, with Britain now set to quit the EU after 43 years in an historic night of drama.

The result was mathematically confirmed at about 6am today although Sky and the BBC had called it, on the basis of polling experts' analysis, around an hour before then - mainly after Birmingham backed Leave to make any other outcome virtually impossible.

England and Wales both voted strongly for Brexit, while London, Scotland and Northern Ireland backed staying in the EU.

Overnight the pound fell to its lowest level against the dollar since 1985 as the markets reacted to the results.

Nationally, the final result saw 17,410,742 votes to Leave (51.9 per cent) and 16,141,241 votes to Remain (48.1 per cent).

* See how the events unfolded in Malvern and Wychavon HERE

* See our LIVE coverage through the night HERE