Ireland's Coveney: Approach by UK's Johnson is not the basis for an agreement

Commenting on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's remarks in the House of Commons on Thursday, Ireland's foreign minister, Simon Coveney, argued that new PM's approach to Brexit would not help them reach an agreement for an orderly exit. "Yesterday was a very bad day from a Brexit negotiations perspective," Coveney told reporters in Belfast in the last hour, per Reuters. "Johnson's comments seem designed to set the UK on a collision course with the EU."

Meanwhile, PM Johnson's spokesman said that the PM will tell EU leaders that the Withdrawal Agreement needs to be reopened, the idea of which on numerous occasions were rejected by EU officials in the last couple of days.

Revived concerns over a Brexit deadlock and a no-deal outcome continues to hurt the GBP and the GBP/USD pair was last down 0.22% on the day at 1.2428.