Yahoo News Odds of second referendum slashed to lowest ever levels after cancelled Brexit vote
Bookies have slashed the odds of a second Brexit referendum to their lowest ever levels after Theresa May cancelled MPs’ vote on her deal after conceding she was heading for a bruising defeat.
Betfred is offering odds of 11/10 on another Brexit vote, the shortest price since the first Brexit vote in 2016. Last month the odds of another referendum were 6/4.
Betfred’s Peter Spencer told Yahoo News UK: “The chaotic scenes in the Commons were replicated here, with hundreds of bets placed yesterday.
“As the chaos ensues the odds of another referendum are tumbling. We’re seeing political betting go through the roof because everyone thinks they know what’s going on, but yesterday took everyone by surprise.”
Coral is now offering odds of 6/5 for there to be another referendum before the end of 2019, also the shortest offered since the 2016 referendum.
This is down from odds of 3/1 in October before the Prime Minister presented the deal she agreed with the EU to MPs.
William Hill has seen a major change in the likelihood of the UK revoking Article 50 – effectively calling off Brexit – since and EU court ruled it could do so without the permission of other European countries.
“At 8:30 this morning we were 5/1 that the UK would revoke Article 50, that price has been hammered and we are now just 6/4,” said William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams.
“In a few days it could be as if Brexit never happened.”
William Hill and Betfred both have Boris Johnson as the favourite to take over the Conservative Party is Theresa May is ousted.
Theresa May is heading to Europe for crisis talks to try and rescue her ailing deal after cancelling MPs’ ‘meaningful vote’ yesterday,.
But European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has warned that there is ‘no room’ for manoeuvre over the controversial Irish backtstop – the element of the deal that most irks Brexiteers.
EU assembly Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt warned Mrs May that the EU would not be budging over Ireland.
He said: “We have two messages for her. The first is whatever the request may be we will never let down our Irish friends. It is out of question to renegotiate the backstop on Ireland.”
However he did signal that the EU may be willing to talk again about the ‘future relationship’, with a view to emphasising the fact that the EU does not want the backstop to come into force.
