Political uncertainty continues to weigh on sterling

The possibility of a coalition government between Labour and the Scottish National Party (SNP) coming to power in Westminster continues to weigh on sterling in the run-up to the elections.

As of 14:04 cable was down by 0.70% to reach 1.4849, versus 1.56 at the start of the year, nearing its lowest levels since 2010.

The overwhelming majority of recent polls have been pointing to the Conservatives and Labour being tied almost neck-to-neck to win the elections.

However, on Thursday one online poll gave Labour a UK-wide lead of six percentage points.

Following that, on Friday a YouGov poll for The Times newspaper put support for the SNP in Scotland at 49%, while Labour stood to win just 25% of the ballots cast. That was the biggest ever lead for the SNP and the lowest ever level for Labour since 2007 in that kind of polls.

SNP has tabled its support for Ed Milliband in exchange for less fiscal austerity.