UK destined for economic damage and weak currency

AS a biographer of Winston Churchill, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson must know that markets can unravel even the best-laid economic plans - as they did following his predecessor's ill-advised decision in 1926 to return the UK to the gold standard at the wrong exchange rate.

Mr Johnson's familiarity with Mr Churchill offers at least a glimmer of hope that Britain's latest leader might heed clear warnings from currency markets that risking a "no deal" Brexit could cost his country enormously. However, Mr Johnson may already have dug himself into a deep and impossible-to-escape political hole.

In his first speech in office, Mr Johnson tempted fate by insisting that the UK will leave the European Union with or without a Brexit deal on Oct 31. The Bank of England, International Monetary Fund and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have all warned that the UK economy could slump by at least 5 per cent relative to trend in the event of a no-deal departure. The UK's supply chains would be disrupted, and access to the European single market would be restricted.