The pound to dollar exchange rate fell to a new seven-month low at 1.3094 after Reeves’ speech this morning. £1 now buys you $1.3094, down from $1.337 last week. A miserable-looking Reeves preempted a fresh budget tax raid, rolling the pitch to break manifesto promises to not raise Income Tax, National Insurance and VAT. Taxing times for ‘working people’…
The pound to euro exchange rate dropped to 1.1372 – 0.26% lower on the day, and is also down 0.7% against the yen. The FTSE 100 is also down 1%, wiping £22 billion off the FTSE market cap. Will Reeves blame this on Brexit too?
Former Treasury minister and adviser to Burnham in the Makerfield campaign Lord Jim O’Neill, who has turned down a role in his government, said Burnham’s first statement Commons was:
“The last thing investors wanted to hear… gilt yields have risen by a 0.25% in one day, which is a lot. We’ve not had that since Liz Truss days… If your country is under the focus of ‘can they come up with a sensible fiscal strategy’ on a day when the markets think ‘well no, you’re not showing any sign of it’ you’re going to have a tough day…if it stays like this your mortgage rate is going up.”