Pound surge suggests UK election will yield smoother Brexit

Members of the British parliament on Wednesday approved Theresa May’s plan to call a general election on June 8.

The Prime minister, Theresa May easily secured the minimum of two-thirds vote required as MPs voted 522 in favour for the motion whilst just 13 voted against.

The prime minister, who had repeatedly ruled out calling an early election, said her volte-face was motivated by the need to “strengthen our hand in negotiation with the European Union“.

“Division in Westminster will risk our ability to make a success of Brexit and it will cause damaging uncertainty and instability to the country”, she said.

The opposition Labour Party and Liberal Democrats welcomed the chance to put their policies to voters, though the Scottish National Party called the election a cynical political ploy.

Spiking by more than 3 cents to $1.2876 in the hours after May’s announcement Tuesday of a June 8 general election, the pound hit its highest level since early October.

Negotiators will look closely at the election manifesto that the Conservatives will issue next month for any indications that Mrs May is indeed seeking a popular mandate for a “softer” Brexit.

May, in her reply, said she would be out campaigning and telling voters about her Government’s record and plans for the future.

The PM also said the timing of a 2020 general election could hamper Brexit talks.

“We see this decision as much as a decision to curtail the “hard Brexit” faction within the Conservative Party as it is to contain anti-Brexit political parties”, said Derek Halpenny, European head of global markets research at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.

But one of last year’s strongest pro-European voices, former Conservative finance minister George Osborne, will not seek re-election.

“Corbyn said years of Conservative austerity had led to falling living standards and called May “a prime minister who can’t be trusted”.

The leader of the main opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, pressed May in Parliament Wednesday to take part in a televised debate ahead of the election, but May maintained she had no interest in doing so.

The chief of the European Union executive Jean-Claude Juncker and British PM Theresa May had a phone call, following May’s call for early elections in June.

At present, May’s governing Conservatives have a small majority, with 330 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons.

Ms Rudd and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson were told about the election announcement prior to Mrs May’s cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Two EU agencies employing more than 1,000 in London will definitely move to the continent, despite United Kingdom attempts to keep them after Brexit, officials say.

“The Prime Minister says we have a stronger economy, yet she can’t explain why people’s wages are lower today than they were 10 years ago or why more households are in debt, six million people earning less than the minimum wage, child poverty is up, pensioner poverty is up. It’s not what I’d call rebelling; it’s holding the government to account”, she said.

Rather than Corbyn, the biggest challenge is likely to come from the Liberal Democrats, the pro-EU party that was nearly wiped out at the last election in 2015 after serving for five years in a coalition government led by May’s predecessor.