Alternative Facts: Theresa May just denied that the collapse in Sterling was because of Brexit

'We’ve seen currencies move around as currencies do'

Remember the early moments of 24 June 2016 when an unexpectedly pro-Leave result came in from Sunderland and it became clear that Britain was headed out of the EU? Remember how Sterling fell off a cliff?

Theresa May now says that Brexit wasn’t actually to blame for the 17 per cent slide in the currency. Speaking at a press conference in Canary Wharf this morning, she said:

“If you look at what happened to Sterling, Sterling had started to fall back before the referendum vote came through. So there have been adjustments to Sterling. It isn’t just that Sterling has gone down. We’ve seen currencies move around as currencies do.”

This is a grotesque misrepresentation of the truth. Sterling did not behave like any normal currency. As Will Martin of Business Insider points out, on 24 June the pound suffered the biggest single day drop of any major currency in history.

If May insists on pursuing her destructively hard Brexit, the least we can expect is honesty about the consequences. Instead, she’s offering alternative facts worthy of Donald Trump.

2 Responses to “Alternative Facts: Theresa May just denied that the collapse in Sterling was because of Brexit”

  1. Craig Mackay

    Brilliant! Theresa May was never all that sharp on numbers and this confirms it. Will we be looking forward to 5 years of Strong and Stable Disinformation? No wonder she and Donald Trump ended up holding hands!

  2. patrick newman

    Of course it is all a load of sphericals coated in bovine excrement. It’s what the Tories are good at. A PM who when Home Secretary had three goes at appointing a chair of the CSE Inquiry and still she could not get it right! You can argue about the merits of a lower exchange rate but to claim it had nothing to do with Brexit is a silly moment that easily tops the Dianne Abbott guide on how not to do interviews!

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