AS the results started to be announced in the early hours of Friday morning, former MEP Caroline Lucas felt a growing "sense of despair" creep over her.

"It was always very clear that it was going to be close," she recalled. "But I suppose I had thought, or at least hoped, that Remain would just get over the line."

By sunrise she was telling reporters of her heartbreak and fears for a divided Britain.

The Brighton Pavilion MP’s mood was only to darken over the next 48 hours, as the vote was followed by leading Brexiteers appearing to row back on key pledges.

Nigel Farage was first, saying a poster stating £350 million could be spent on the NHS every week was "a mistake".

Elsewhere South East MEP Daniel Hannan said the UK should stay in the common market – accepting this would mean accepting unlimited numbers of European workers.

“I think it is pretty devastating,” Ms Lucas said yesterday of the result. “I just worry, over the last few days seeing the speed with which the Leave campaign is distancing itself from the pledges and promises that it has made.

“We said all along that the claim we spent £350 million a week on the EU was a lie, and they were denying it within four hours of the results.

“They were great big fat lies and they duped large swathes of the public into thinking that leaving the EU was going to be an answer to some very real and legitimate problems.

“And my real worry is they will soon recognise that those were lies and that they have actually voted for a solution that can actually make things worse.

“I am thinking of people that might be struggling and thought that leaving the EU is going to free up all this money for the NHS, and that simply is not going to be the case.

“All the signs are there that we are about to enter a period of serious economic difficulty that will hit the poorest hard.

“I think the Leave campaign have got a lot to answer for.”

As is the case for most politicians, Caroline Lucas gets her fair share of abuse online - and Friday morning was no different.

But she her best to take no notice of it.

She said: "In terms of just general vitriol – the positive side is there is a lot of support and after the terrible death of Jo Cox social media had a fightback that was so moving.”

Ms Lucas served as Member of the European Parliament for the south-east from 1999 to 2010, and campaigned during the referendum on the grounds that the EU needed reforming, not abandoning.

In particular she highlighted its environmental achievements.

She was a strong supporter of former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis's recently founded movement to democratise Europe, DiEM25, lobbying for more transparent decision making and access to documents.

"What saddens me is that we are not there for our colleagues in trying to make the EU better," she said yesterday.

She was in London on Thursday night/ Friday morning to watch the results come in.

She said: "I think a lot of people have got some very real grievances around feeling that they have been left behind, that their views have been ignored, and that they were persuaded that voting Leave was the best way to express that anger.

"What struck me [during the campaign] was someone who said they had really got nothing left to lose.

"But my issue is that voting to leave the EU is going to make it worse, not better."

She said the feelings of alienation she encountered bolstered the case for proportional representation and she said she would fight to maintain the workers' rights, environmental and other protections she feels are at risk from leaving the EU.

Once again the country's only Green MP finds herself representing a part of the UK swimming against the tide, with more than 60 per cent of people in Brighton and Hove voting to remain.

The referendum is not binding and Brexit will need to be passed by Parliament. But Ms Lucas said it would be "dangerous" to vote against the wishes of a referendum, despite her and her constituents' views.

"It think that is a really difficult one," she said. "I can certainly see the temptation in doing that. But I think where part of the reason why the majority voted for leave is because they felt the political classes were not listening to them, then if you dismiss the result of the referendum you risk reinforcing that narrative.

"So I think that would be quite a dangerous thing to do."

Speaking about the result in Brighton, she said: “I feel very proud of Brighton – the way they voted and for the way it has responded all over the campaign; it is such a pleasure to campaign in the city because people are welcoming to people from different cultures and countries, and there is a real sense of the city being outward looking and confident.

“And I think the movement behind the People's Republic of Brighton and Hove does capture the pride that people have in their city.”

The MP added while she did not support the current petition for a second referendum, one option might be to call for another referendum once the terms of Brexit are known, given that people did not have those facts at hand at the time of their vote.

“I do think that the number of people that have signed the petition in Brighton and Hove demonstrates an outpouring of feeling about wanting to stay in the EU," she said.

"And maybe a way forward would be pushing for a second referendum on the terms of the agreement, because right now we don’t know what the agreement is going to look like.”