Exporters to Britain brace for further political hit to sterling

The UK elections are getting tighter, which could mean another nervy few days this coming week for sterling traders and Irish firms depending on the currency.

Sterling dropped last week, rounding off the worst week this year, as a poll showed Theresa May’s Conservative Party leading the main opposition Labour Party by just five points, a gap that even this month had been as high as 24 points in some surveys. That left investors questioning whether the UK prime minister would achieve the increased majority that had been baked into the pound for the past few weeks.

If the result of the poll is uniformly spread, it could mean the Tories end up with a smaller majority than in 2015, which analysts say could spell more losses for a currency that was buffeted by the Brexit vote in 2016.