- The
British pound rallied on Monday, despite an upcoming vote of no confidence in Boris Johnson later in the day. - Sterling gained 0.5% against the
dollar and 0.6% against theeuro on Monday.
The
At least 54 Conservative members of Johnson's own party submitted secret letters of no confidence triggering the vote in his leadership.
"The threshold of 15% of the parliamentary party seeking a vote of confidence in the leader of the Conservative Party has been exceeded," Graham Brady, the senior Conservative backbencher overseeing the process said in a statement.
It comes ahead of controversial plans to send $4, and the so-called Partygate scandal in which Johnson and political figures around him broke rules to hold parties in the midst of UK coronavirus lockdowns.
In terms of what the vote could mean for the pound, Giles Coghlan, chief analyst at HYCM told Insider: "If Johnson is unseated, investors can expect the pound to fall initially, without any clear replacement in mind for PM. However, if the view of a named replacement figure is received positively, we could potentially see the pound whipsaw."
At 10:31 ET, sterling gained 0.4% against the dollar to trade at $1.253 and rose 0.5% against the euro to trade at 85.31 pence. But the pound was still close to its weakest in a month against the single European
Analysts at $4 echoed the pound's overall weakness against the euro saying: "EUR/GBP has never returned to its pre-Brexit referendum levels and the softer pound since mid-2016 tallies with the weak investment data in that period."
Other analysts were similarly downbeat about the pound's longer-term prospects.
"The pound remains vulnerable in the short term given worsening growth prospects and a potential re-pricing of
With the UK facing its strongest
The bleak outlook brings together a perfect storm including red-hot inflation, economic disruption from COVID-19, and Brexit, which together left the UK economy almost flat-lining in the first quarter of this year, expanding by just 0.8% compared with the previous quarter when GDP grew 1.3%.
Analysts at Rabobank reinforced a negative outlook of the pound saying: "Insofar as the UK has a current account deficit, the GBP is more likely to be sensitive to a perceived deterioration in economic fundamentals that it would be otherwise."
Viraj Patel, FX & Global Macro Strategist at Vanda Research said he was generally bullish on the pound but pointed out that the currency looks vulnerable in light of the confidence vote.
"Boris Johnson 'no confidence' vote should be a non-event for $4