David Cameron has announced his resignation as Prime Minister

The fallout from the UK's referendum on leaving Europe has begun already.

Just hours after the country voted to leave the European Union, David Cameron has given a speech to announce that he will step down as Prime Minister before the Conservative Party conference in October.

He explained that he had already been to see the Queen and that the UK needed a 'new captain' of the ship.

He seemed to suggest that negotiations on the terms of the UK's exit would not begin until then.

It follows a result that flew in the face of prior predictions, much like the 2015 General Election. At one point the bookies had Remain as 1/7 favourite, while final exit polls even went as far as predicting a 55/45 win for Remain.

However, standings as we write are a 51.9% Leave and 48.1% Remain - a remarkably clear, albeit still close decision by the public.

Early analysis already suggests that chancellor George Osborne will follow David Cameron out of the door, along with, presumably, other major figures of the Remain campaign.

Furthermore, whoever does replace Cameron as Prime Minister - the clear favourite is Boris Johnson, who campaigned for the Leave campaign - may also end up calling an early General Election. Gordon Brown was widely criticised for failing to call an election to give him a mandate to govern when he took over the reigns from Tony Blair midway through a term and the new Prime Minister may well decide they cannot begin negotiations without a popular vote from the public.

There are even rumours that the parliamentary Labour party will also begin a campaign to remove Jeremy Corbyn as leader, following his campaigning for the Remain campaign.

Meanwhile, with Scotland voting remain, there will undoubtedly be calls for a fresh Independence referendum, while figures from Sinn Fein have already called for a discussion about the possibility of a united Ireland following Northern Ireland's similar vote to Remain.

Much is up in the air, but one thing is certain: there will be a new Prime Minister in place by October.