The pound fell as much as 1.5 per cent on the day in early deals in London on Monday, hit by media reports that Prime Minister Theresa May will signal Britain is on course for a “hard” Brexit from the European Union.

Sterling reached as low as $1.1983 in Asian trading, its weakest - October's “flash crash” aside - in almost 32 years. It had recovered somewhat to $1.2033 by 0806 GMT, still down 1.2 per cent from opening.

Against the euro, it also fell over 1 per cent on the day to 88.53 pence, its weakest in over two months.