020 7898 0500Those of you who expected fireworks from Trump’s four-day visit to the UK were not disappointed on Friday, as the publication of an interview with The Sun included some extraordinary comments. In an unprecedented move, the US president said that Theresa May had failed to follow his advice on Brexit and said that a soft Brexit would ‘kill’ the UK’s chances of reaching a trade agreement with the US.
Politicians from both sides of the House (and the Atlantic) reacted angrily to Trump’s comments. However, when Trump and May took questions from reporters later in the afternoon, Trump backtracked on his comments, saying that The Sun had published ‘fake news’. The interview was recorded, so it will be interesting to see what The Sun has to say in response. Ultimately, the day turned out to not be quite as bad for sterling than it might have been. That it might still be possible for the UK and US to agree a trade deal helped buoy the markets.
Tory Brexiters threw another spanner in the works by claiming that Theresa May’s white paper is a ‘bad deal for Britain’. It is fair to say that May isn’t having the best of times right now and in many ways is facing the impossible task of trying to please everyone who all have competing views.
Today we have no releases from the UK, but we have the unemployment rate and average earnings tomorrow, with inflation rate due out on Wednesday. It is expected to push higher from 2.4% to 2.6% which could strengthen the case for an interest rate rise in August. It will be interesting to see how the markets see it and whether or not sterling makes some gains.
