Brexit: Keep calm and we will weather the EU storm, say Midlands council leaders

While every constituency across the two areas voted emphatically in favour of Brexit many local authority chiefs had backed the Remain campaign.

But given the result some have called for the formal process to leave the European Union to be triggered sooner rather than later.

Lee Jeavons, deputy council leader at Walsall which saw 68 per cent back Brexit, said: "We need time for reflection there is obviously going to be a time of turmoil for a while. It was a passionate and divisive campaign. For me personally it is about continuing to work for the people through choppy waters.

"I don't think it should be dragged out I would have thought the EU would not want a messy divorce."

Wolverhampton City Council cabinet member Milkinderpal Jaspal, was among the 63 per cent of people in the city who voted Leave and echoed the calls to be calm. He said: "There is no need to panic. There will be no major changes in the short-term, it is going to take two years."

Leave was also the conclusive result in Dudley with 68 per cent voting for independence. Former council leader David Sparks admitted the outcome was hard to take. He said: "As someone who is a passionately European the referendum result is devastating. But my view it there should never have been a referendum.

"It is inevitable that other issues, in particular immigration, cloud the subject of the referendum and help determine the result."

Two thirds of people in Sandwell (66.7 per cent) backed Brexit but council leader Steve Eiling feared the borough's business would bare the brunt of the decision. He said: "We still don't know what the exact implications of this result will be or what the timetable for leaving the EU will be.

"A lot of industry in Sandwell is reliable on exporting to European markets. The Black Country and Sandwell has also been on the receiving end of EU funding – that will now dry up.

"It is too early to say the impact on our area. But business will continue and it is up to us to support it."

Staffordshire stood shoulder to shoulder with the Black Country in deciding to end Britain's European membership. In Cannock Chase, 69 per cent voted to Leave.

District councillor Carl Bennett said: "A lot of people have voted on immigration without taking into account the other issues and what Leaving would mean. We have seen the implications already this morning with money markets taking a beating all over the place.

"We have just got to keep trying and trying to keep doing what's best for the Cannock population."

Deputy Council Leader Gordon Alcott added: "I don't think we will see much change to be honest but if it does affect jobs and causes people to lose work I would like Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage to come to Cannock and explain to those people why it has happened."

Stafford saw one of the closer results with the 56 per cent of people voting to Leave.

Councillor Francis Finlay, cabinet member at Stafford Borough Council, said: "The result was quite decisive and now we have got to make sure we pull together and make sure leaving the EU actually works for us and we can move forward. People will look to politicians to make this into something positive. The quicker we leave the better now."

Labour councillor Milkinder Jaspal, former Mayor of Wolverhampton, voted to Leave the EU. He revealed his thoughts on 'broken' Labour's detachment from its voters.

"I have always considered myself to be a councillor who listens to the views of the people who live in my ward," he said.

"Since the EU referendum was announced in February I have spoken to many residents in Health Town to gauge their views. The majority of them have told me, almost from the start, that they wanted to leave the EU.

"These people are not racist. They are certainly not 'little Englanders'. They come from mainly working class backgrounds and are from a cross section of different races and religions.

"Voters want to be listened to, and to see openness and honesty in their politicians.

"They have told me time and time again they want to live in a country that has control over its own decisions, rather than one that cedes elements of power to Brussels.

"Business owners in Heath Town don't know the names or the faces of the people who are making these decisions in the EU.

"Everyone in Britain wants to protect their own businesses and industries, but plenty of people, myself included, believe we are more than capable of doing it outside the EU. I don't think the EU has ever worked. It is a very different organisation to the one that Britain joined over 40 years ago.

"My confidence in the system had dwindled to the point where I decided that voting Leave was the only sensible option. Those that I have spoken to in my ward share my views.

"We are now left with a broken Labour party. Until our politicians start listening to the people who elected them, Labour has no chance of getting into power."