IT really is absolutely no surprise at all that sterling is so weak, given the rambunctious nature of the Conservatives when it comes to Brexit.

Last week’s Conservative Party conference stoked fears that the UK Government favours a “hard Brexit” option with loss of free access to the European single market.

Worryingly, even in the wake of heavy losses for the pound on Friday at the end of what was a grim week for sterling, there seems to be a lack of any desire from the Conservatives to try to tone things down.

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The pound remained under very significant pressure on the foreign exchanges yesterday, and there do not seem to be many experts stepping up to proclaim confidently that it will rebound any time soon.

John McLaren, honorary professor at the University of Glasgow’s Adam Smith Business School, noted that it was interesting that sterling had on Friday, after a “flash crash” in Asian trading hours, failed to get back to where it had been before the plunge.

Jeremy Peat, visiting professor at the University of Strathclyde’s International Public Policy Institute, warned that the UK economic outlook appeared “bleak”, with politicians seemingly focusing more on immigration than access to the European single market.

The Conservatives might to some extent prefer a weak currency, in the hope that the dire consequences of Brexit will be masked, for a short while at least, by a rise in exports.

However, you would think they might want to move to stabilise things after what has seemed to be a fairly disorderly fall in the currency, fuelled by their hard talk on the Brexit front.