Prime Minister Theresa May said that after its withdrawal from the European Union, the U.K. will need an entirely new trading relationship with them. The pound dropped as a result of her plans to take the country away from Europe’s only market.
As May’s personally placed deadline for starting Brexit near, every word she has said has been followed closely by the markets for signals of the shapes the separation will undergo. On Monday the British pound went down to its lowest against the dollar following the prime minister’s statement about how Brexit isn’t “about keeping bits of membership” of the European Union. The pound traded one percent lower at $1.2168.
Table of Contents
Clarity
Senior Conservative Lawmaker Andrew Tyrie told May that the government should “provide clarity” about its intentions “given the need to build a broad-based support for its position at home and abroad.”
No decision so far yet has been made on Britain and EU’s trading relationship, Chancellor of the Exchequer Philipp Hammond said. He said that Discussions must determine “what the interim period should look like between Britain leaving the European Union and delivering those long term arrangements,” if a deal can’t be agreed upon by the end of the two-year exit period allowed by the rules of the EU in 2019.
Jobs in the U.K.
Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, whose party aims to deter Brexit, said that “Every time Theresa May opens her mouth on Brexit the pound falls further. It’s clear this government is taking us towards a destructive hard Brexit that would hurt jobs, increase prices and blow a hole in the budget.”