Pound falls after Theresa May hints at "hard" Brexit

London (dpa) - The pound fell to its lowest level since October on Monday amid renewed fears that Britain could leave the EU single market in a "hard" Brexit.The pound fell to 1.2147 dollars by mid-morning, down more than 1 per cent from Friday‘s close, prompted by Prime Minister Theresa May‘s hint on Sunday that her government could seek to leave the single market during Brexit negotiations. Pro-Brexit politicians welcomed May‘s comments, but opponents accused her of failing to provide enough detail of her negotiating position. Steve Baker, a leading eurosceptic lawmaker from May‘s Conservative Party, on Monday said she had given "welcome clarification of a sensible position: We will not be clinging on to bits of EU membership." Fellow Conservative Michael Gove, a co-leader of the Vote Leave campaign, urged May to leave the single market and "deliver a full Brexit, not settle for fake Brexit." In her interview on Sunday, May said many people "talk in terms as if somehow we are leaving the EU but we still want to kind of keep bits of membership of the EU.""We are leaving. We are coming out. We are not going to be a member of the EU any longer," she told Sky News. "We will be able to have control of our borders, control of our laws," May said.May has said she plans to trigger Article 50, which sets the rules for a two-year negotiating process for a nation leaving the EU, by the end of March.