Rates Steady After TV Debate
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- November 20, 2019
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Sterling was slightly weaker against the dollar and largely flat versus the euro this morning, showing little immediate reaction to a debate between the leaders of Britain’s two main political parties ahead of next month’s election.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson doubled down on his Brexit promises, saying only he could take Britain out of the European Union quickly in a testy leadership debate with opposition Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn.
Mr Corbyn accused the Prime Minister of conducting “secret meetings” with the US about the NHS and a future trade deal.
The Labour leader said: “What we know of what Mr Johnson has done is a series of secret meetings with the United States in which they were proposing to open up our NHS markets as they call them to American companies.”
Responding, Mr Johnson said: “This is an absolute invention. It is completely untrue. There are no circumstances whatever in which this Government or any Conservative government will put the NHS on the table in any trade negotiation.”
The debate was not a game changer for sterling, the market reaction would have been stronger if Jeremy Corbyn had gained an advantage in the polls but that doesn’t appear to have been the case.
Expectations that the ruling Conservative Party will win a Dec. 12 general election have supported the British currency and analysts said only a significant shift in opinion polls would push the pound out of recent ranges.
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