Election result special: your commercial news round-up

Boris Johnson’s Conservatives have secured a historic victory in the third UK general election in four years, with Labour routed in its worst electoral performance since 1935. The thumping Tory majority clears the way for a new Parliament to pass Johnson’s Brexit withdrawal agreement and take the UK out of the European Union (EU) by 31 January. The seismic victory also ensures that continuous Conservative government of the UK since 2010 will continue well into the next decade.

The business world has already responded to the result – read this commercial round-up for a summary of the immediate election impact and other news from around the world.

• The pound has surged to its highest level since May 2018 in the wake of the election result, while the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 both saw stocks rise. There were particularly sharp rises in the stocks of companies providing key utilities that Labour had promised to nationalise if it entered government.
• Housebuilding stocks have also recovered as investors sense that uncertainty over Brexit is ending and that Tory tax incentives will increase the number of property transactions being completed over the coming months.
• “The real work starts now,” the director general of the Confederation of British Industries has said as UK business groups urge Johnson to negotiate a permanent trading relationship with the EU. Many businesses are concerned that the prime minister will continue to pursue a ‘hard Brexit’ which would sever previous trade agreements with other countries, damaging the country’s economic interests
• Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has tweeted that “Britain and the United States will now be free to strike a massive new trade deal after Brexit.”
• Elsewhere, reports that the US-China trade war could be ending may have been premature, as China has refused to confirm whether talks have resulted in an agreement.