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PM’s Brexit Bill Faces Challenges In Parliament

• Posted by Shyam Gokani in Brexit, Currency, Dollar, Economy, EUR, GBP, Prime Minister, Sterling, UK, Uncategorised
• February 7, 2017
• No Comments

Sterling hit a one-week low against the dollar as Prime Minister Theresa May faced challenges over her legislative plan for taking Britain out of the European Union.

A three-day debate on a law giving May the right to trigger Brexit began on Monday and will be followed by a series of votes on whether to attach extra conditions to her plan to start talks by March 31.

Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favour of the principle of the new law last week, but Sunday brought the first signs of internal Conservative Party dissent which could see the bill amended, damaging May’s authority domestically and potentially giving EU negotiators a powerful lever in the exit talks.

May warned lawmakers not to obstruct the will of voters with a series of amendments of the Brexit legislation. Her spokeswoman said the government would not allow attempts to keep Britain in the EU.

May has said parliament will be given a choice between accepting the deal she has reached with the EU or rejecting it and leaving the bloc without any agreement on issues such as trade and immigration. MPs want to be given more influence.

Any signs of a more chaotic outcome, any signs of a more difficult discussion phase will create downward pressure on sterling.

As soon as you get that uncertainty increasing in the UK, it makes it harder for foreign investors to want to finance the current account deficit.

The pound is fairly directionless, there is no strong trend and it’s consolidating at these lower levels.

Shorts on sterling last week fell to their lowest levels in 2017, a move traders said created more room for those investors to sell the pound.