The chief executive of Kingston's Chamber of Commerce has said business owners and residents must remain calm after last night's Brexit vote, in the face of Sterling's crash and widespread market uncertainty.

Jerry Irving called on Government, other political parties and business leaders to exert "strong leadership" after the referendum, but said he thought it was not "the end of the world" for companies in Kingston.

Prime Minister David Cameron announced this morning that he would stand down in a few months' time, having led the unsuccessful Remain campaign.

Read more: Post-Brexit resignation an 'unworthy end' for David Cameron, Kingston and Surbiton MP James Berry says

Mr Irving said: "From the business community's perspective, they're very disappointed with the outcome.

"What's required now is some strong leadership from both the Government and other parties, but also within the business community to sort out what we need to do to make sure both the local economy in Kingston, and the national economy, are able to deal with this.

"It's not the end of the world. I wouldn't say that it's immediate, short-term doom and gloom.

"We've got good businesses in Kingston. The business economy in Kingston is quite vibrant, it's got quite a good spread.

"There's a lot of water to pass under the bridge in the next few months, but we need to stay calm.

"We have some multi-nationals in Kingston like Saipem and Nikon.

"But Kingston as a business community is predominantly small businesses, and we have a significant professional sector.

"The onus of trying to recover the situation is now going to fall on the shoulders of the business community to have to negotiate on slightly different terms than it had done previously.

"Europe is one part of our economy. We have a significant Korean business community here, we have a large Chinese business community here, and we have a university that has some worldwide experience in business too."

Mr Irving added that he thought Mr Cameron ought to have stayed on as PM for another 12 months because "he is the experienced negotiator in Europe".

Kingston voters had chosen Remain over Leave. 52,533 voters said they wanted to stay in the European Union, compared with 32,737 who wanted to leave.