Sterling has failed to make any gains on the US dollar today as Prime Minister Theresa May comes under mounting pressure over concessions on the Irish backstop issue ahead of tomorrow’s crucial parliamentary vote on her Brexit ‘Plan B’. With uncertainty increasing as both Ireland and the EU remain resolute on the issue of the backstop, the pound remains weakened ahead of tomorrow’s vote, as trade in Sterling is muted. Simon Coveney, Irish Deputy Prime Minister, said: “Even in a no-deal Brexit situation every party and every MP in the UK will have a responsibility to ensure there is no return to a hard border and Northern Ireland is protected.” Some pound traders, however, have remained hopeful after the former foreign secretary Boris Johnson expressed a surprising return of confidence in Mrs May’s Brexit deal.
Mr Johnson said that if she succeeds in wresting the “freedom clause” over the Irish backstop from Brussels, ‘Plan B’ will receive “full-throated” support from Parliament on Tuesday.
Writing in his Daily Telegraph column, Mr Johnson said: “I have heard it from the lips of very senior sources in government … that this country is about to seek proper binding legal change to the current lamentable withdrawal agreement.”
The pound is also struggling against the US dollar after Friday’s poor BBA mortgage approval figures for December which fell below expectation to 38.8K.
Optimism in the US dollar, meanwhile, has temporarily returned today as the US government is set to reopen in full.
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US dollar investors will be awaiting today’s publication of the Chicago Fed’s national activity index figures for December, with any signs of an increase potentially boosting the ‘greenback’ further.
This will be followed by the Dallas Fed’s Manufacturing Index figures for January which are expected to decrease.
The US, meanwhile, faces a week of ‘consolidation’ which will see a raft of data releases following the partial US government shutdown, when a number of US ecostats were left unreleased.
The pound to US dollar exchange rate could soar tomorrow if Theresa May’s ‘Plan B’ is backed by a majority in the House of Commons.