Pound to dollar exchange rate: General Election polls send Sterling sliding against euro and dollar

The pound continued its slide against the dollar and euro on Friday as Labour narrowed the gap on the Tories with its best poll performance under Jeremy Corbyn.

Sterling was down 0.5 per cent to 1.28 US dollars having risen above 1.30 just days earlier, while against the euro it slumped 0.4 per cent to 1.14 euro.

In the first opinion poll taken since Monday night's suicide bomb attack in Manchester the Conservatives' advantage over Labour has narrowed to just five points.

The YouGov survey for the Times put Theresa May’s party down a point on the previous week on 43 per cent, while Labour gained three points to reach on 38 per cent of the vote.

The Liberal Democrats were up one on 10 per cent and Ukip gained a point to reach four per cent.

Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda, said: "Sterling fell again overnight after a poll showed the gap between Theresa May's Conservatives and Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party has narrowed again.

"Coming on the back of losses yesterday, it's turning into a rotten end to the week for the pound. What's more, with it having broken below 1.29 against the dollar overnight, it could be facing further misery in the near-term."

The pound has plummeted since Britain voted to quit the European Union as confidence in the country's economic prowess has evaporated.

Yesterday, official figures showed that the economy suffered an even deeper slowdown at the start of the year as the services sector came under pressure and inflation dealt a blow to household spending.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2017, revising down the figure from its initial estimate of 0.3 per cent.

Mr Erlam added: "The pair (pound and dollar) had been grinding higher for the last month and while it did manage to briefly penetrate 1.30 on a few occasions, the moves were always lacking conviction which suggested markets weren't happy at these levels.

"The break of 1.29 may well be the trigger for a correction in the pair, with 1.28 and 1.2750 being notable levels below."