Investing.com -- The British pound moved grudgingly higher Boris Johnson was confirmed as the winner of the Conservative Party’s leadership contest, all-but confirming him as the U.K.’s next Prime Minister.
The party confirmed on Wednesday that Johnson had defeated his rival Jeremy Hunt by a margin of 2:1 in a ballot of over 120,000 members. The margin was a touch wider than many pundits had forecast.
By 7:35 AM ET (1135 GMT), sterling was at $1.2472, up less than 0.1% from immediately before the announcement, having managed an intraday high of $1.2482. It was also up 0.2% against the euro.
The FTSE 100 likewise quickly reversed a modest uptick on the news to trade up 0.6%, where it had been before the announcement, while the yield on the benchmark 10-year government Gilt was unchanged at 0.71%.
In a brief speech to party members, Johnson repeated his triple goal of achieving Brexit by Oct. 31, uniting a party that has been split down the middle by the decision to leave the EU, and leading the Tories to victory in the next general election.
Under U.K. law, that has to take place by 2022, but The Times of London reported that Johnson is already preparing for a snap poll next year, hoping to exploit the divisions of the left-wing Labour party that leads the opposition.
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