Pound falls due to blocking a new Brexit vote

The British pound fell to session lows on Monday after the speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, ruled that Prime Minister Theresa May’s government couldn’t ask for yet another vote on May’s Brexit deal on Tuesday unless the deal had changed.

The reasoning is that the government can’t bring the same motion twice, according to local reports. May’s deal has been rejected twice already, once in January and amended version last week. The U.K. is scheduled to leave the European Union on March 29. So far, no trade deal with Brussels is in place but the U.K. Parliament has also rejected a hard, no-deal Brexit.

The U.K. is next expected to request an extension of the March 29 deadline, in line with a parliamentary vote from last week. Sterling dropped in response to yet another blow to May’s government. Last week, after her deal was rejected again, chatter of fresh elections began among political and market experts. The British pound GBPUSD, +0.1660% last bought $1.3191, down 0.8%, according to FactSet. One euro EURGBP, -0.0467% fetched £0.8591, up 0.9%.

British pound slides as U.K. Parliament speaker blocks Tuesday’s Brexit vote, MarketWatch, Mar 19