British Pound Depreciates Against Major Currencies

It was gathered that, against the dollar, the pound was last down by 0.40% to $1.281, off the 5-1/2 month highs hit earlier in the session on optimism about the deal.

Against the euro, the pound was last down by 0.24%, to 0.862, according to the Reuters report.

The vote by UK parliament members leaves Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s vow to leave the European Union by the end of the month in doubt.

Johnson sent an unsigned letter to the European Union requesting a delay to Britain’s exit from the bloc but added another note in which he explained that he did not want a “deeply corrosive” Brexit extension.

Johnson had previously said he would rather be “dead in a ditch” than ask for an extension to the Oct. 31, 2019 deadline.

But he was compelled, by a law passed last month by opponents, to send a letter to the bloc asking to push back the deadline to Jan. 31, 2019 after lawmakers thwarted his attempt to pass his EU divorce deal on Saturday, 19th October 2019.

In an extraordinary step that indicates the extent of the Brexit fever gripping the United Kingdom, Johnson sent a total of three letters to Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council.

First, a brief cover note from Britain’s EU envoy explaining that the Government was simply complying with that law; second, an unsigned photocopy of the text that the law, known as the Benn Act, forced him to write; and a third letter in which Johnson said that he did not want an extension, according to Reuters report, In one of the letters.

Johnson was quoted saying “I have made clear since becoming Prime Minister and made clear to parliament again today, my view, and the Government’s position, that a further extension would damage the interests of the UK and our EU partners, and the relationship between us,” Johnson stated.