July 29 (UPI) — The British pound slid to a two-year low against the dollar on Monday as the United States experienced unexpected growth and the British government reiterated that Britain is prepared to leave the European Union without a deal.
The pound closed down 1.2760 percent on Monday, falling as low as $1.2212 from $1.2383 late Friday and also dropped 1.4288 percent against the euro to 1.0979 euro.
The decline against the dollar marked the pound’s lowest intraday level since April 2017 when the formal legal process of leaving the European Union began as well as a turnaround from the previous session when it achieved its strongest level against the euro in a month.
Monday’s decline comes as Britain has taken a hardline stance in negotiations for a deal to leave the EU.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has declared that the current deal on the table between the country and the EU is no longer an option.
“I want us to engage, to hold out the hand, to go the extra mile, extra thousand miles … and what we want to do is make it absolutely clear that the backstop is no good. It’s dead, it’s got to go. The withdrawal agreement is dead, it’s got to go,” he said.
The backstop, a plan to prevent the return of a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, was part of former Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal, which the EU has said it will not replace.
