Finchley and Golders Green MP Mike Freer has urged the government to make the best of the shock EU Referendum result as the Conservative Party tears itself apart in the aftermath.

Mr Freer is the Parliamentary Private Secretary to prominent Leave campaigner Chris Grayling, but always said that he intended to vote to remain.

Mr Freer said: “As an active supporter of the Remain Campaign, I was pleased to see Barnet vote overwhelmingly to remain in the EU.

“However, as a democrat, I accept the UK has voted to leave the EU. We must now deliver on that decision and at the same time ensure we continue to grow the economy for all our benefit.

“Personally, I am saddened to see David Cameron step down. He has been an outstanding PM holding a coalition together and then delivering an outright win in May 2015.”

Mr Freer’s comment that as a democrat, he accepts the result, is in contrast to the determination of many to overturn the Referendum.

A petition calling on Parliament to trigger a second Referendum has now gathered close to 3,700,000 signatures and rising as the pound continues to plummet and turmoil in the world market continues.

Since 2011, Mr Freer, a former businessman, voted in favour of a Referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU.

Prior to the Referendum, he strongly expressed his fears to the Ham&High that a vote to leave could have disastrous consequences for the UK, particularly for the London economy.

Barnet was in step with most of London and Scotland with its decisive vote to remain - but out of kilter with much of the rest of England and Wales.

Barnet saw a voter turnout of 72.1 per cent, with a postal vote turnout of 85 per cent.

More than 60 per cent of voters wanted to stay in the EU, with 100,210 voting to remain and 60,823 to leave.

Leader of Barnet Council, Richard Cornelius, described himself as a “reluctant Brexiter” prior to the Referendum primarily because of the issue of sovereignty. He said that when he voted to join the EEC in 1975, he was “saying yes to a Common Market, not to a country called Europe.”

Cllr Cornelius is currently out of the country and not available for comment.