Sterling briefly jumped on Tuesday after German chancellor Angela Merkel said the European Union would think about practical solutions to the backstop, an agreed insurance policy for the Irish border that London wants scrapped.
The pound briefly rallied more than 0.7% against the dollar and the euro after Merkel’s comments. Sterling rose to as high as $1.2180 from trading below $1.21 earlier, before falling back to $1.2125.
Against the Euro GBP has reached the days high of 1.0984..