Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Â David Cameron has announced his resignation after the shocking resolve to leave the European Union against his advice.
In a statement on Friday, Cameron said that he is likely to be gone by the time of the Conservative Party conference in October.
His statement came as stock markets around Europe saw significant falls, with early signs that this could be an event that causes a shock as deep as 1987’s Black Monday.
While on his part, the leader of the U.K. Independence Party (UKIP) Nigel Farage,  who has been a prominent member of the campaign to leave the E.U claimed victory, saying June 23 would become known as the U.K.’s “Independence Day”  and called for a Brexit government, reiterating that the day should be declared a national holiday. Â
The governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney,  tried  to calm markets Friday morning with a pledge to provide an extra £250 billion ($344 billion) in liquidity, and  assured markets that U.K. banks were well-funded .
The European Central Bank also confirmed in a statement that it “stands ready to provide additional liquidity” if needed.
Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, warned against “hysterical reactions”.
“Today on behalf of the 27 leaders, I can say that we are determined to keep our unity as 27. For all of us, the union is the framework for our common future,” he said in a statement.
Across Europe, markets opened deep into negative territory, with STOXX Europe 600 down 8 percent, the FTSE 100 opening down 7.83 percent, Germany’s Dax down by 8.6 percent and the CAC 40 in France down by almost the same amount. The FTSE started to pare back some losses within an hour of the market opening, and was down 4.8 percent at 0900 BST.
In London, housebuilders and banks were worst hit. The U.K.’s Lloyds Bank was off some 30 percent on the open, as were Barclays and RBS. Housebuilders Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey had around 40 percent knocked off their market value as fears about the U.K.’s economy deepened.
The leave camp secured 51.9 percent of the vote in the U.K. with 17.4 million votes, throwing markets around the world into turmoil and prompting sterling to hit its lowest level since 1985.
Markets around the world have already been roiled by the shock result:
In Japan the Nikkei 225 closed down some 8 percent
Sterling has fallen 7 percent against the dollar and nearly 2 percent against the euro.
The prices of Brent and WTI have both dropped some 4 percent.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond has fallen 12 percent.
Dow futures now down 460 points
The ramifications of the result are reverberating across the U.K., European Union and the wider political and economic establishment.
