Exporters could get a new boost from the depressed currency, helping lift shares of advertising company WPP Plc, Scotch whisky distiller Diageo Plc, and Unilever. Energy companies like Centrica Plc surged as investors speculated that Conservative plans to cap power bills would get watered down.
Once the initial shock wore off, some of the people at Rudd’s house party saw rays of hope in the result. Because May has advocated a hard Brexit, the prospect of a new government or a weaker Conservative leadership could augur a less acrimonious break with the EU.
The election result “shows that the British people do not want a hard, destructive Brexit,” Rudd wrote in a letter Friday to supporters of Open Britain, a group he funds that wants continued close ties with the EU even after a split. Though Rudd has dueling loyalties—his sister is Home Secretary Amber Rudd, who barely prevailed in a tight race to reclaim her Hastings constituency for the Conservatives—he pledged to continue his campaign against “an extreme” break from Europe. “There will be no mandate for it in the House of Commons,” Rudd wrote.
Citing the uncertain political outlook, the Federation of Small Business argued for a delay in the Brexit negotiations at a meeting with other industry lobbying groups that was hosted Friday morning by Business Secretary Greg Clark. Later in the day, after May put together a plan to govern in an alliance with the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, the federation said it would support negotiations going ahead as scheduled this month, a spokesman said.
Overseas investors in the U.K., many of whom were dismayed by the vote to leave the EU, showed signs of weary familiarity with the country’s electoral surprises. Hitachi Ltd., the Japanese industrial conglomerate that has a train factory in the northern English town of Newton Aycliffe, said it could shift manufacturing to Italy if Brexit takes an unfavorable turn.
“In terms of negotiations with the European Union, regardless of which party it is, clearly we’re hopeful that there are no barriers between Europe and the United Kingdom,” Alistair Dormer, chief executive officer of Hitachi Rail Europe Ltd., said Thursday in Tokyo.
As Big Ben struck 10 p.m. on Thursday, marking the end of voting, entrepreneurs, consultants, and executives gathered at the Institute of Directors, a business networking group based in a stone-clad Georgian mansion on London’s Pall Mall. They were shocked but not surprised as the exit polls started rolling in.
Nibbling on canapes and quaffing wine, they were quick to say May had gotten what she deserved for a lackluster campaign that ended up alienating business leaders and ordinary voters alike.
“She didn’t listen,” said Julian Nettlefold, editor of Battlespace Publications, a specialized publishing house that covers the global defense industry. “It’s called arrogance.”
— With assistance from Giles Turner, Sam Chambers, Prudence Ho, and Chris Cooper.