No win predicted; Salmond and Cameron react
THE First Minister and Prime Minister have responded to predictions that the No campaign is heading for a 55% to 45% win in the independence referendum.
With just three council areas left to declare, including Highland, a number of media outlets are predicting victory for No.
The predicted 55%-45% margin almost mirrors the 54%-46% No victory predicted by YouGov in a poll that went live as counting got underway.
Despite securing a 53%-47% victory in Glasgow, the Yes campaign failed to make significant in-roads in several other key target areas.
A 5,000 vote victory in the traditional Labour heartland of North Lanarkshire was offset by surprisingly strong support for the union in SNP strongholds likes Angus and Perth, which both went comfortably to No.
Elsewhere, the key battleground of Inverclyde ended with an almost dead heat, with No edging out Yes by just 86 votes.
And in the last few minutes Aberdeenshire, which contains Mr Salmond's constituency voted 60-40 in favour of No. (108,606 to 71,337).
Speaking within the last half-an-hour First Minister Alex Salmond said: "Well done to Glasgow our Commonwealth city, and to the people of Scotland for such wonderful support."
Prime Minister David Cameron, meanwhile, praised No leader Alistair Darling for the No camp's success.
He said: "I've spoken to Alistair Darling - and congratulated him on a well-fought campaign."
Edinburgh, which is home to Mr Darling's constituency was comfortably won by No, with 198,638 votes to 123,927 (61% to 39%).
Elsewhere, Argyll and Bute also voted for No with 37,143 to 26,324.
As of 6am Yes had 1,398,540 votes to No's 1,737,464. The No camp required just 85,112 more votes to guarantee victory.
