Michael Saunders, a ‘hawkish’ Bank of England policymaker, has said this morning that an interest rate cut may be needed if Brexit uncertainty continues. This comes after the Bank of England’s comments last week explaining that slowing global growth and Brexit were causing the economy to suffer. Saunders told local businesses in Barnsley that “If the UK avoids a no-deal Brexit, monetary policy also could go either way and I think it is quite plausible that the next move in Bank Rate would be down rather than up.” He stressed that even if a no-deal scenario is avoided, high levels of uncertainty would still persist.
The pound was mixed yesterday as Parliament sat for a second day following prorogation. MPs voted to reject the government’s request to close Parliament for three days for the Conservative Party conference, which is due to be held in Manchester next week. This is the seventh out of eight votes that the Prime Minister has lost during his time in office. Labour and the Liberal Democrats have already held their conferences.
The conference will clash with PMQ’s next week, however, Leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg has said that he expects that the Prime Minister will be present for them. After fiery discussion in the House on Wednesday, MPs also discussed Commons culture and appropriate language. Facing increasing scrutiny from MPs of all parties, Johnson defended his use of language over Brexit.
Consumer Confidence figures were released for the UK this morning, coming in at -12. This beat expectations of a -14 reading for September, but still remains in the negative as consumers brace for the Brexit deadline.
