Britain, EU plunged into uncertainty by exit vote

German Member of Parliament, Jo Leinen, center, holds an EU flag outside European Parliament in Brussels on Friday, June 24, 2016.

Britons voted 52-to 48 percent Thursday in favor of ending their country’s 43-year membership in the 28-nation bloc. “It looks like a sad day for Europe and Britain”.

South of the border in England, other pro-EU Britons also pondered their uncertain future, with the Daily Mirror newspaper asking: “So what the hell happens now?”

But Cameron promised to stay on as a caretaker until October while the Conservative Party chooses a new leader, saying it was up to his successor to notify the European Union formally that Britain wanted to leave under the Lisbon Treaty, which provides for two years of divorce proceedings.

“I would like it immediately”, Juncker continued. But a series of crises have shaken British confidence in the EU.

The draft resolution also says the Parliament “will enact changes in its internal organisation to reflect the will of the United Kingdom citizens to withdraw from the European Union”.

“Of course a new (British) prime minister must be appointed, that will probably require a few days but this is quite urgent”, he said on Saturday after an emergency meeting attended by Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

French Minister of Economy, Emmanuel Macron arrives for an exceptional cabinet meeting following the results of the UK EU Referendum vote at the Elysee Presidential palace on Friday in Paris.

“There must be clarity, ” Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn told reporters.

Sacked foreign affairs spokesman Hilary Benn also called for Corbyn, who was elected past year largely by left-wing party members and supporters, to go. But political pressure and economic instability may force British politicians to act more quickly than they had hoped.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel struck a less urgent tone, saying it “shouldn’t take forever” for Britain to deliver its formal notification of leaving “but I would not fight over a short period of time”. Merkel has said there was “no reason to be nasty” in Britain’s exit negotiations.

The leadership contest could end up with a number of candidates seeking to block his path. One potentially strong challenger is Theresa May, now the home secretary and a quiet campaigner in favour of Britain remaining in the EU.

The officials said they were anxious that British Prime Minister David Cameron, who resigned on Friday, could hand over to someone with a strategy to drag out the country’s departure.

The British vote has stoked fears of a domino-effect of exit votes in eurosceptic member states that could imperil the integrity of the bloc.

British interior minister Theresa May avoided the in-fighting that has dominated the campaign, giving her a unique position among those likely to want to succeed PM David Cameron.

Juncker transferred Hill’s portfolio of overseeing financial services to Latvian commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis – costing Britain a key voice in a sector that is hugely important to London, whose status as Europe’s financial capital is threatened by Britain’s European Union exit.

“It’s in Britain’s interest and in the interest of Europeans not to have a period of uncertainty that would have financial consequences, and that could have economic and political consequences”, he told a news conference after the meeting.

The U.K.’s surprise move triggered huge selloffs in stock markets worldwide with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping more than 600 points on Friday. “You get the market reaction – but in terms of trade patterns that’s going to be way down the road”.

Specialist Meric Greenbaum works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.

The ratings agency Moody’s downgraded its outlook for Britain, saying its creditworthiness was now at greater risk.

In a speech setting out Labour’s response to the Brexit vote, Mr Corbyn focused on the need to maintain social and employment protections after European Union withdrawal and to take account of the sense of “powerlessness” felt by Labour voters who opted for Leave on Thursday.

Labour legislator Frank Field said Saturday that Corbyn “clearly isn’t the right person to actually lead the party into an election because nobody thinks he will actually win”.