May Looks Beyond Brexit to Portray Herself as Workers’ Tribune

  • Closing speech to conference will focus on ‘ordinary people’
  • Prime minister pledges to speak for marginalized Brexit voters

Theresa May.

Photographer: Carl Court/AFP via Getty Images
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Theresa May will attempt to move past the difficult questions of Brexit in a speech on Wednesday that pitches her government as the champion of Britain’s struggling working classes.

The pound has fallen 1.8 percent to a 31-year low against the dollar since the start of her Conservative Party’s annual conference amid investor concern that Britain could be heading for a “hard Brexit,” with little accommodation for the finance industry. Banks warned Tuesday that 70,000 jobs and 10 billion pounds ($13 billion) in tax revenue are at risk, while the International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for U.K. economic growth next year, noting the Brexit uncertainty.