STERLING found support again yesterday from a slew of news about cross-party moves to prevent Boris Johnson’s Government delivering a no-deal Brexit.
The pound – which was pushed down to around $1.2013 in the early hours of Monday on no-deal Brexit fears but has since staged a partial recovery as political opposition to Mr Johnson’s plan has intensified – rose to a high of around $1.2175 yesterday afternoon. Sterling had closed at $1.2110 in London on Thursday, having risen during that session.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford spoke by phone yesterday morning about how opposition parties might join forces to prevent the UK leaving the European Union without a deal. Mr Johnson has pledged to take the UK out of the EU by October 31 “no matter what”.
READ MORE: Ian McConnell: High time Sajid Javid saw this sorry mess is made in Brexit Britain, by Tories
An SNP spokesman said: “This morning, Ian Blackford held a constructive conversation with Jeremy Corbyn to discuss ways in which opposition parties can work together in removing the growing threat of a disastrous no-deal Brexit.”
READ MORE: Ian McConnell: A gift for Johnson to stop very bad Brexit days for millions in the UK
Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson has said former Conservative chancellor Kenneth Clarke and former deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman would both be prepared to lead an emergency government to avoid a no-deal Brexit.
The pound also regained further ground yesterday against the euro, which had climbed to around 93.24p early on Monday, its best level against the pound since October 2009 with the exception of a sterling “flash crash” in autumn 2016.
READ MORE: Ian McConnell: Paris metro poster for slapstick British farce evokes Brexit metaphor
The euro was yesterday afternoon trading around 91.4p, having dipped below 91p during the session. It was around 91.7p at 5pm on Thursday.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here