Theresa May comfortably won a historic House of Commons mandate to start Britain’s exit from the European Union last night (1 February).
Mrs May is now able to start the two-year Brexit process next month after MPs voted by 498 to 114, a government majority of 384, for the bill that gives her the power to invoke the European Union treaty’s Article 50 exit clause.
The vote saw Mrs May lead virtually all Conservative MPs through the voting lobbies alongside Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who had instructed his MPs to respect the Leave vote in last year’s EU referendum.
Parliamentary approval was required after the Supreme Court ruled that Mrs May could not trigger Article 50 using royal prerogative.
The vote came as sterling traded at a one-month high against the US Dollar and ahead of the Bank of England’s GDP and inflation forecasts being made today (2 February).
Jordan Hiscott, chief trader at Ayondo Markets, said: “It will be interesting to see how the recent lift in overall oil price will have affected the Bank’s inflation data, and ultimately its interest rate strategy, which seems to have changed drastically in the last six months.
“In the aftermath of Brexit, there was talk of possibly having two interest rate cuts but as recently as November, (Bank of England governor) Mark Carney hinted that interest rates were just as likely to go up as down.
“This is clearly the result of better-than-expected growth and higher-than-expected inflation.”
emma.hughes@ft.com
