The British pound plunged close to 2.0 percent on Thursday afternoon after early UK exit polls showed Theresa May’s Conservative party gaining only 314 seats amid an unusually high voter turnout.
Early polls suggest that Conservatives may fail to get the needed majority - 326 seats - for a new mandate to advance Brexit negotiations and block a 2nd Scottish independence referendum.
George Osborne, former British finance minister, characterized the polls as “catastrophic” for May’s party,
"It is early days. It's a poll. If the poll is anything like accurate this is completely catastrophic for the Conservatives and for Theresa May," he told ITV News, according to
Reuters.
Prior to the exit polls, around 4:55 p.m. EDT, the pound was trading against the dollar at 1.2906, but after British news outlets began reporting on the surprise results, the GBP/USD pair sold off 1.94 percent in the space of ten minutes.
By 5:04 p.m., the rate between the pound and the dollar was hovering at a 2-month low of 1.2704! At press time, the pound has recovered some of the initial losses, trading at 1.2820 - up 0.90 percent:
Pound photo by
Chris Potter, with modification by Razor-Forex.
