Pound wavers on conflicting reports ahead of meaningful vote

Sterling wobbled but recovered on Monday as reports emerged from Westminster that Theresa May was poised to pull the 'meaningful vote' on her Brexit deal.

The Prime Minister was looking to downgrade her promised meaningful vote to a provisional vote on whether they would back attempts for technical changes to the deal that attorney general Geoffrey Cox has been struggling to negotiate with Brussels, reported a number media channels, including the Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Independent and Sky News, citing governments sources.

But a 10 Downing Street spokesman soon scotched this, saying the meaningful vote on May's Brexit deal will be held on Tuesday as planned.

The pound fell 0.3% against the euro to 1.1528 before quickly jumping back into positive territory after the Downing Street reassurance. Versus the dollar, sterling also wobbled but quickly recovered.

Instead, May was mulling flying to Strasbourg to meet European Commission president Jean Claude Juncker, it was reported by mid afternoon, sending GBPEUR up 0.4% and GBPUSD up 0.5%.

Sterling was clinging onto the "somewhat disputed reports", said Spreadex market analyst Connor Campbell, that May was meeting Juncker to "finalise some kind of Brexit deal, one that would presumably then be presented to Parliament on Tuesday".

"While nothing is confirmed – the root of the rumour is a comment from Ireland’s deputy prime minister – it was enough to get the pound excited," Campbell said.

Last month, to head off a threatened rebellion over another Brexit vote, May promised that if her government had not won a meaningful vote by Tuesday 12 March, she committed to allowing MPs a vote on whether they want the UK to leave the EU without a withdrawal agreement and a framework for a future relationship on 29 March, and if they voted no to that, they would get to vote to approve the seeking of ​a short extension to Article 50.

Earlier, Downing Street had said that EU talks were "deadlocked", with the PM having spoken to European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker by phone on Sunday but with no plans to go to Brussels to continue negotiations before the vote.

May and Cox have been pushing for changes to the deal on the Irish backstop, calling for the EU to soften its stance so that the deal will be able to pass through the House of Commons in Tuesday's vote. May lost the first such vote by the largest ever margin in parliament's history.