EU referendum: George Osborne seeks to reassure markets as pound plunges further

Robin de Peyer27 June 2016
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

George Osborne sought to calm market jitters as he insisted the UK can face the fallout from the EU referendum “from a position of strength”.

In a statement before the London Stock Exchange opened this morning, the Chancellor claimed Britain remains “open for business”.

His first public comments since the Leave campaign triumphed in Thursday’s referendum came as the pound faced further losses in overnight trading.

Sterling was down another 2.6 per cent against the dollar early this morning.

Mr Osborne appeared to retreat from his previous stance that an emergency Budget would have to be passed in the event of a vote for Brexit, saying it was better to delay such a move until a new Prime Minister is in place.

Following talks over the weekend with Bank of England Governor Mark Carney and fellow finance ministers and international economic organisations, Mr Osborne said that "further well-thought through contingency plans" were ready to be deployed if needed in response to further volatility.

Mr Osborne said it was "inevitable" that the UK economy would face an "adjustment" in the wake of the Brexit vote, though he steered clear of repeating explicit warnings of recession made during the referendum campaign.

The Chancellor said: "It will not be plain sailing in the days ahead. But let me be clear - you should not underestimate our resolve.

"We were prepared for the unexpected and we are equipped for whatever happens. And we are determined that, unlike eight years ago, our financial system will help our country deal with any shocks and dampen them, not contribute to those shocks or make them worse."

The Chancellor's intervention came ahead of the opening of markets in London, as Boris Johnson broke cover in a bid to start healing Tory wounds ripped open by the bitter referendum battle.

Mr Johnson, the frontrunner to replace David Cameron for PM, used an article in the Daily Telegraph to insist that Britain would not turn its back on Europe and would be able to introduce a points-based immigration system while maintaining access to the Single Market.

Mr Cameron was due to chair an emergency Cabinet meeting, while US secretary of state John Kerry was visiting London and Brussels for talks on the fallout from the vote.

Meanwhile, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was insisting he will not stand down in the face of a rebellion which saw 11 members of the shadow cabinet quit following the sacking of Hilary Benn as shadow foreign secretary.

He faces an uncertain day as rebels look set to continue their coup to oust him in the wake of the referendum result.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT