020 7898 0500On a day when we learned that UK wage growth slipped to 2.5% in the three months to May 2018, we also saw the government defeated on the customs union by Tory rebels. On Monday, Jacob Rees-Mogg, along with several other Brexiter MPs, forced the government to back four amendments to Brexit legislation, but the concession infuriated Tory remainers.
Two of them, Nicky Morgan and Stephen Hammond, tabled an amendment to the trade bill which would force Britain to join a customs union with the EU if there was no agreement on frictionless trade by 21 January 2019. Labour confirmed it would support the amendment and late last night we saw that the Government win narrowly.
Meanwhile, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, said that a no-deal Brexit would have ‘big economic consequences’. When answering questions from the Treasury select committee, Carney said that the UK might be left with ‘a lot of idle bankers’ following a hard Brexit, as much of the demand for their services comes from the EU. The comments came after the BoE said that contracts worth trillions of pounds between UK and EU banks could collapse after Brexit.
Today we will see the inflation rate which is expected to climb to 2.6% from 2.4%.
