Boris admits Brexit could hit sterling as it tumbles to three-week low against the dollar
Remain campaign claims threat of leaving EU is already damaging sterling
BORIS Johnson today admitted the pound could sink if Britain quits the EU – as a Brexit poll surge sent sterling tumbling to a fresh low.
The former Mayor of London conceded the pound may take a hit “over the short term” in remarks leapt on by the Remain camp.
The market blip came after THREE separate opinion polls saw Vote Leave pull ahead, prompting claims the threat of Brexit was already damaging the economy.
A survey commissioned by Good Morning Britain put Leave on 45 per cent, four points ahead of Remain on 41 per cent, amid growing concern about immigration.
Leave was six points lower just one month ago.
A separate TNS survey put Leave two points ahead, 43 per cent to 41 per cent.
Meanwhile ICM said 48 per cent now backed leaving the EU, against 43 per cent on Remain.
Yesterday Sterling plunged below $1.44 — a drop of almost one per cent — hitting a three-week low of $1,4352 in early trading on Asian markets.
Probed by The Sun, Brexit backing BoJo confessed : “The pound will go where it will over the short term, but, believe me, in the long term you can look forward to fantastic success for this country.”
His comments were immediately seized by Remain campaigners who hit back saying “leaving the EU is a risk to jobs and our economy we can’t afford to take.”
Ben Bradshaw, Labour MP for Exeter, said: “Leave have no plan for life outside Europe, and have now admitted families will face higher prices in the shop because the pound will fall if we leave.”
Jeremy Stretch, currency expert at CIBC markets, told The Sun: “The opinion polls are showing momentum is with the Leave campaign and it’s having an impact — international investors are mindful of the issue at hand.”
“With so much uncertainty in the global economy, you don’t want to be holding an asset that is depreciating or could depreciate still further.”
Boris’s comments came during a campaign stop to a beauty product factory in Warwickshire, where he said we should “wash those unelected bureaucrats right out of our hair”.
Appearing alongside Michael Gove, Gisela Stuart and John Longworth at DCS in Stratford-upon-Avon, he told the audience: “People are trying to sell it in terms of sales of two rival products.
“They want to say that we are selling democracy — because that’s what we believe in — and they say that they are selling economics, because they think they have the stronger hand there.
“That is basically because on the Remain side of the argument, they totally get that we are winning all the democratic points.”
He added: “What they say is that that sacrifice of democracy is worth it for the economic gain.
“What I want to say to you today is that that argument is morally and practically and completely wrong, and that democracy is in fact the vital ingredient of economic success.”
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Tonight voting experts claimed that the EU referendum could end as a dead heat between Remain and Leave, if the difference in turnout between young and old voters mirrors the 2015 general election.
Analysis by the Press Association found the result could depend on whether people aged 18-24 stay away from the polls in similar numbers to last year, when only four in 10 voted.
PA’s projection based on polls and using demographic data modelled on the 2015 election, shows Remain and Leave currently tied on 50 per cent.
But if turnout on June 23 is just two percentage points higher among voters aged 55 and over, the projection changes to a narrow victory for Leave.
A one-point rise in turnout among 18-24 year-olds tilts the result narrowly towards Remain.
Bookies Ladbrokes also said the chances of a Brexit were 10 per cent higher than a week ago.