The Conservative party conference in Birmingham continued today with Theresa May and Amber Heard taking to the stage. May this morning suggested that the UK was heading towards a hard Brexit and there is likely to be several bumps along the way.
Earlier in the week the new Prime Minister announced that the UK would trigger Article 50 before the end of March, this essentially has sent the markets into turmoil.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd gave her first major speech today and took the opportunity to set out her immigration plans. Rudd suggested that there would need to be new curbs on foreign workers and students in order to change the perception in the UK. The Home Secretary plans to bring in stricter testing to make sure that people coming to the UK will be contributing more, hinting also that British businesses should be doing more to focus on training UK citizens.
There is unlikely to be more respite for Sterling over the coming few weeks as all the talk of immigration curbs leaves a lot in the air. Political figures around the EU have made it clear that the UK will not have a special status and that there is no access to the free market with free movement of citizens. In my opinion I would not be surprised to see the GBP/EUR continue to lose ground in the short term and it seems unlikely a major jump in Sterling’s favour is coming anytime soon.
Therefore, if you are looking to buy Euros with Sterling, doing so sooner rather than later could save you from further losses.