Rude awakening in the UK over Brexit cost sends pound down

May’s strategy amounts to a bet that voters’ opposition to immigration outweighs all else and that the economy will find support from easier fiscal policy, new trade deals emerge and banks don’t flee London, said Simon Tilford, deputy director at the Center for European Reform. The political payoff could be more support for her Conservatives at a time when the opposition Labour Party is in disarray.

“May wants to give the people what they want and thinks that the people voted for a hard Brexit and that the economic costs are exaggerated,” said Tilford. “A lot of this has to do with Conservative Party unity and she has a better chance of unifying the party going for a hard Brexit.”