020 7898 0500The Labour party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, gave a speech yesterday in which he said that the UK should stay in the customs union after Brexit. This puts Theresa May in a difficult position, as Tories in favour of a soft Brexit can now vote with Labour to defeat any bill in line with the hard Brexiteers in the Conservative party. It looks as if it will be an interesting few weeks and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see some significant sterling volatility as events unfold.
The only release of note in the UK was the mortgage approvals, which rose for the first time in four months in January. 40,117 mortgage loans were approved in the first month of 2018, which is a healthy increase from 36,085 in December. However, it is still less than this time a year ago (although above what was expected).
Today we will see the Nationwide housing prices which are expected to dip a little from last month, but political events could be key driver of any sterling movements today; it will be curious to see if there is any fallout from what Corbyn said yesterday.
