Sterling falls as new poll reveals favour for Brexit camp

Sterling fell against the US dollar, euro, yen and Swiss franc as a news opinion poll revealed a lead for the Brexit campaign for UK to leave the European Union.

Britain votes on 23 June on whether to remain part of the EU, or leave. Polls to date have tended to support a 'Remain' outcome when votes are counted, bolstering sterling for the past two weeks.

At 16:37 BST, sterling was down 0.6% at $1.4552 and off 0.62% to €1,3064. It was down 0.84% to 161.313 yen and 0.51% lower at 1.4453 Swiss francs.

The telephone poll, conducted by ICM research on behalf of The Guardian, revealed 45% of respondents supported UK leaving the single-currency bloc, against 42% for remaining. It showed 13% were undecided.

When the 'dont-knows' were excluded that yielded an advantage for the 'Leave' camp which was standing at 52% versus 'Remain' at 48%.

The previous ICM telephone poll had shown the 'Remain' camp leading the polls by 10 percentage points, with the proportion of those who said they would back staying inside the European Union at 55% versus the 45% who favoured Brexit .

An online poll from ICM research yielded a similar outturn, with 52% of respondents saying they would to 'Leave'.