Hungary has voted emphatically against accepting EU migrant quotas, exit polls suggest, in a cry of defiance against Brussels that is likely to cement the country’s status as the leader of a “counter-revolution” against the bloc’s central powers.

As many as 95 per cent of voters voted “No” to the quotas in Sunday’s referendum, though there were fears on Sunday night that the result could be declared invalid due to a low turnout.

One opinion poll by the Nézőpont Institute put turnout at just 42 per cent, while a Hungarian government source said it was unlikely to have been higher than 45 per cent.

The referendum was the brainchild of Hungary’s hardline conservative prime minister, Viktor Orban, who cast the “No” vote as being in defence of the country’s sovereignty and independence.

His 18bn Forints (£50million) campaign focused heavily on the fact that Isil terrorists, such as those behind the Paris and Brussels attacks, posed as migrants in 2015 while returning from Syria along the so-called “Balkans route” of eastern European countries, including Hungary.