To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

Up Next

Boos, woos and booze welcome to inside an overnight US presidential election watch party at a pub in London.

Both Trump and Harris supporting Londoners are feeling ‘nervous but hopeful’, theyve told Metro.

Between the existential dread and fear over the future of democracy, they also expressed optimism that their chosen candidate would win. Its a mixed bag.

The first poll closed at 11pm (GMT) this evening, with state after state turning blue or red as county clerks see which boxes have been ticked.

At the Lexington in Angel, pub-goers booed when Kentucky was called for Trump but cheered seconds later when Vermont went to Harris.

But hours later, with Trump clinching state after state, Harris supporters and sleep-deprived observers are heading home en mass as MAGA Londoners vow to remain until closing. Many MAGA fans are high-fiving whoever they can.

Among the punters is Chris Clark, a Labour councillor for Croydon, south London. He door-knocked for former president Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 he desperately wanted to do so for Harris but was too busy with Labour politics.

I desperately hope that they elect someone who is not a racist and not a fascist, Clark tells Metro.

More than 200 people are queuing to get inside the Lexington (Picture: w8media)Some light reading (Picture: Luke Alsford)

It does not make any difference to the reality if they are paying their own expenses, he says of Labour officials who wanted to campaign for the Democrats.

‘Any sane person who has the resources to do so will choose to go there. The same as in 1936 when people chose to go to Spain to fight fascism.’

In one corner of the Lexington, a group of Trump supporters are reading out of a pocket-sized version of Trump’s book Think Like a Champion.

Latest London news

London Underground strikes still going ahead despite RMT cancellation

Detectives offer £20,000 reward to find killer who shot dad in the head

London studio flat could be yours for £850 but toilet resembles a ‘prison’

To get the latest news from the capital visit Metro.co.uk's London news hub.

One of them, an American who refused to give his name to the Metro, is feeling pretty good about Trumps chances tonight.

‘America is going to get back to what America is after a landslide victory by Donald J Trump, he says.

His favourite chapter in Trump’s book is ‘There’s times when you should move on’.

Not everyone is wearing MAGA hats. Macro (left) has a Halloween hot dog costume on, while the barman has a tee referencing one of Harris more interesting remarks (Picture: Luke Alsford)Carlos decked out in a Make America Great Again cap (Picture: Luke Alsford)

One line in the chapter reads: ‘If, at the end of trying to make your current situation better, it is an obvious dead end, then it’s a good time to move on.’

If Trump wins, he predicts, somewhat jokingly, that they will have to fight their way through the city as Londoners will be enraged by Trump’s victory. (Britons tend to prefer Harris over Trump, according to polls.)

The bookworm is part of a group of solely young men, a key demographic swinging behind Trump in this election cycle, who have come together as they ‘believe in self-defence’.

He tells Metro: Young men aren’t buying into the narrative. The youth are some of the only people who see through the hypocrisy and fake-ness of the news.’

Metro found another Trump supporter in the pub, a Spanish engineer from Spain called Carlos who has lived in London for 10 years.

Carlos, 40, agrees with Trump’s plans to bring manufacturing back to America and hopes a Republican win will encourage European leaders to do the same.

The Lexington, a pub in north London, is seeing punters of all political stripes (well, all two colours) show up for a watch party (Picture: Luke Alsford)

He added: ‘He is looking after his country. We need to go for candidates like him who want to bring the country back to its past glory.

‘I wish we had a Trump in Spain and in the UK.’

Carlos, who has brought the distinctive red MAGA hat with him, is confident that the ‘energy is with’ a Trump victory but believes in the conspiracy that the 2020 election was stolen.

He said: ‘All of a sudden at 5 oclock Biden went from losing to all of a sudden a spike in winning. It feels unnatural.’

If Trump is ahead this time around, the engineer thinks the same might happen again.

Standing next to Carlos is Daniel, 28, an American from New Jersey, who voted via email for Kamala Harris a few hours ago, says the polls are wrong and predicts a sweeping Democrat victory will be declared by tomorrow morning.

How can Americans overseas vote?

Americans in the US arent the only ones worried about the future of their country.

There are nearly 3 million US citizens living abroad who can vote this includes those who have never even lived in the US before.

Americans living in the UK have to fill out a Federal Post Card Application (FCPA) to vote and request an absentee ballot.

This ballot doesnt come in the mail its completely electronic. You can get it over email, download it as a file or get it faxed. Yes, fax is still an option.

Usually, you get the ballot about 45 days or so ahead of an election. Once you cast your vote, you can send it back by email or fax. You can also print it and pop it in the post, according to the US Embassy in the UK.

‘I feel it in the air and the water,’ he adds.

The American, who has lived in the UK for 10 years, has even placed a £300 bet on that outcome and stands to win £750 if Harris reaches the White House.

His friend, Alexander, 28, from the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania, is donning a ‘Bernie’ shirt, after the left-wing Democrat presidential candidate in 2016 and 2020, Bernie Sanders.

Alexander likes Trump’s tax-cutting policies, but worries that Trump ‘would be a lot worse’ for the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, and says that the Republican candidate will cement conservative opinion on the country’s Supreme Court for 40 years.

Rachel, also from London, described the deluge of Trump leads in swing states as ‘upsetting.

She said: ‘I don’t understand why women hate men so much.’ In her view, American men are voting on economic issues, ‘at the expense of human rights.’

Layla, 27, is one of many women in the Lexington who are worried about the impact of a Trump victory on women’s and minority rights and is ‘holding her breath’ for a Harris victory.

She said: ‘The response will be a push to fascism, and there is already this push to fascism.

Alexander (left) and Daniel (Picture: Luke Alsford)

‘If it doesn’t go the Democrats way there will be this movement towards anti-women’s rights, anti-trans rights, anti-minority rights.

‘It is a fundamental human right to have access to medical care as and when you need it. If people don’t have that access, then so many people are going to die.’

She disagrees with some of the policies trumpeted by Harris, particularly around the war in the Middle East, but calls her the ‘better of two evils.’

Her friend Eleanor, 26, lived in Washington DC for all of her childhood and says this election season feels different for her and her female friends compared to four and eight years ago.

If youre going to watch an election widely seen as a major test of democracy itself, you might as well do it in a pub (Picture: Luke Alsford)

She said: ‘This election feels more personal.

‘Barriers we thought would never be broken, like the appeal of Row vs Wade, have now been broken.

‘The stakes are now higher than they were in 2016. Everything Trump has threatened, which used to be hyperbolic, now feels possible.’

Eighty-one percent of Londoners have an unfavourable view of Trump, according to a recent poll by YouGov.

The poll found that 68% of Londoners want Harris to win the November 5 election in comparison to 18% who prefer the former president.

While some Londoners will stay all night, others are hoping to get a flavour of the result before heading to bed.

William, 25, is hoping to head home at 1am but is not confident he will be able to sleep peacefully if the election remains on a knife edge.

He is meeting at the Lexington with a group of New Liberals. This contingent is pro-Harris but concerned most with the danger Trump poses to world security.

William said: ‘Trump is very dangerous for world security. If Trump is elected China will definitely look to invade Taiwan, and it will damage Ukraine.

I am genuinely terrified how foreign autocrats will use the opportunity to expand whole NATO is no longer iron-clad.

‘Harris does excite me, but it is more about the danger of Trump.

On offer to those staying overnight are American whiskeys and the choice of watching CNN or BBC, once the coverage of the results gets underway at 11pm.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.