Boris Johnson Is Playing With Fire on the Pound
Some Brexiters think sterling’s plunge is good for exports. But they’re ignoring the threat of new tariffs, regulatory barriers and higher import costs.
Fanning the no-deal flames.
Photographer: Stefan Rousseau - PA Images/PA ImagesBoris Johnson has been the U.K.’s leader for only a week, but he and his “Brexit war cabinet” have achieved one milestone already: The pound has slumped to its lowest level against the U.S. dollar and the euro since 2017.
The cause is Britain’s newfound eagerness to up the ante in its negotiations with the European Union, with Johnson refusing to even meet with EU leaders until they scrap the terms of his predecessor Theresa May’s Brexit deal. His “do-or-die” hardball strategy has been gleefully parroted by ministers such as the foreign secretary Dominic Raab, who say leaving without a deal would be an even better way to squeeze a trade deal out of “stubborn” Brussels and prove the naysayers wrong.