What looked like the first stirrings of a recovery in the pound Tuesday morning has given way to more selling, as the British currency tumbled to $1.2502 – just above a key psychological threshold – following reports that the conservatives’ 1922 committee had finally received the 48 letters of no confidence necessary to trigger a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Theresa May.
The no confidence letter count stood at 46 as recently as Tuesday morning. However, a few frustrated remainers joined with their Brexiteer peers to push the total over the top. What’s worse, the gesture of contempt comes as May is out of the country on a “whistlestop” our of European capitals in a desperate bid to achieve “assurances” on the Irish backstop that multiple EU leaders have said they wouldn’t be willing to give.
In what has become a regular feature of the Brexit chaos, reports that the threshold had been reached were almost immediately contradicted.
Masses of speculation about the numbers going in – lots of people hoping the 48 has been reached, but not clear – ‘we’ll def have them by….’ – fill in the blanks – but as @BethRigby says, mood seems to be hardening towards PM for sure https://t.co/SHA1iSw5Wg
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) December 11, 2018
Ironically, the prospects for internecine warfare among the Tories come as Labour has backed off its push to hold a no confidence vote in the government which, if successful, would have led to new elections.
via RSS https://ift.tt/2EpXKyU Tyler Durden