U.K. stocks fell on Monday on worries about the fresh hit to an economic recovery after an official said Brexit trade talks remain difficult with "significant differences" between the two sides.
Meanwhile, all of London and much of southeastern England is now under strict "Tier 4" lockdown restrictions after the discovery of a new strain of the Sars-CoV-2 virus, which is said to be up to 70 percent more transmissible.
The benchmark FTSE 100 dropped 84 points, or 1.2 percent, to 6,453 despite the pound plunging as much as 2 percent after another missed deadline in Brexit trade talks.
Oil stocks were coming under selling pressure, with BP Plc losing 4.7 percent and Tullow Oil falling as much as 8.7 percent.
Royal Dutch Shell lost about 4 percent. The company said it will write down $3.5 to $4.5 billion in the value of oil and gas assets in 2021.
Telecommunications company Vodafone declined 2.3 percent after saying it has ended talks to sell its Egyptian business to Saudi Telecom Co.
Travel and leisure stocks paced the decliners, with IAG and EasyJet falling around 9 percent.
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