Result of the EU in or out referendum to be made in Manchester

The historic result will be announced by the chair of the Electoral Commission, Jenny Watson, who is chief counting officer for the poll, promised by David Cameron before the end of 2017.

Ballot papers are to be counted overnight after polling stations close at 10pm on the day of the referendum, with a result expected in the early hours.

A venue in Manchester - yet to be identified - will be one of 12 count collation centres gathering together results from the 11 electoral regions of Britain and one in Northern Ireland. And the same venue will collect up the figures from the 12 regional centres to tot up the final result.

Ms Watson said: “We’re extremely pleased to be able to announce that we’ll be working with the team at Manchester City Council to deliver the national referendum count event alongside their regional count.

“Agreeing this now will help us plan as quickly as possible to deliver a successful and cost-effective event once we know the date of the referendum.”

Sir Howard Bernstein, counting officer for Manchester and regional counting officer for the North West, said: “Manchester is honoured to have been chosen as the venue for this important democratic event in which there will be worldwide interest.

The other 11 regional centres will be located in the South, East, South-East, North-East and South-West of England, London, the West Midlands, Yorkshire and the Humber, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The South-West centre will also collate votes from Gibraltar.