REMAIN campaigners in Stroud enjoyed a jubilant – albeit brief – moment when it was revealed that the district had voted to stay in the European Union.

Fifty-five per cent of the district opted to remain within the EU while 45 per cent chose to leave.

Nationally, Leave won the referendum at 52 to 48 per cent with the highest turnout in a UK-wide vote since the 1992 general election.

Stroud News and Journal:

Cllr Debbie Young and fellow Leave voters in Bank Gardens, Stroud, celebrating their victory

David Hagg, chief executive of Stroud District Council, announced Stroud’s results at about 2.45am on Friday, at Stratford Park Leisure Centre, to cheers and dancing in the Remain camp.

Earlier in the day, while residents were going to vote, a Conservative district councillor and Leave supporter from Stroud was pelted with eggs as she was walking to her campaign base.

Cllr Debbie Young (Chalford), who was wearing a Vote Leave badge at the time, said the eggs must have been thrown from a distance, possibly out of an open window, due to the speed at which they travelled.

She was standing outside the Queen Vic pub in Gloucester Street at the time when the eggs narrowly missed her.

The turnout for the referendum locally was 80 per cent – compared to 72.2 per cent nationally, with 33.6million people voting.

Leader of the Remain group in Stroud, Aidan Dunsdon, said he was ‘proud to be from Stroud,’ when the district’s results came in.

“We feel we ran a very positive campaign focusing on the benefits of being in Europe,” he said.

Before the counting drew to a close in Stroud, Lesley Williams, county councillor for Stonehouse and a member of the Remain camp, expressed her worries about how the vote was going nationally.

“My underlying concern is that we are a country of two halves,” she said.

“We are going to be a country which is divided and that will need addressing.”

With results pouring in from across the country, as soon as Stroud’s results were revealed the floor cleared quickly as politicians rushed home to continue to watch the count.

National results were heavily polarised with England and Wales voting strongly for Brexit, while Scotland and Northern Ireland both backed staying in the EU.

Voting was also split according to age groups with a majority of those aged 49 and under backing Remain, a YouGov poll indicated.

As results sunk in on Friday morning, people shared their disbelief and triumph on social media.

A government petition calling for a second referendum was circulated and a Facebook post with Stroud’s results with the words ‘Proud to Be Stroud’ was shared over 500 times.

Green county councillor Sarah Lunnon (Stroud central) announced that she would be looking into getting Irish citizenship.

“My paternal grandparents were both born in Eire,” she said. “I’m embarking on the process of determining if me and my children can claim Irish citizenship and so remain citizens of the EU.”

A pub owner in Stroud is flying the Union Flag at half-mast to show his disappointment with the result of the vote.

Rodda Thomas, who owns the Crown and Sceptre in Horns Road, had been flying the EU flag ‘over our little piece of Europe’ during the campaigning.

The day after the vote, Yoshi MacKinnon, who is half Mexican and half English and lives in Stroud, said he was told to ‘go home, you Paki’.

Following David Cameron’s resignation, Conservative MPs including Boris Johnson, Theresa May, Stephen Crabb, Nicky Morgan and Sajid Javid are potential contenders to replace him as Prime Minister.