Hedge funds ‘may have used EU poll data to short-sell pound’

PRIVATE polling firms sold data to hedge funds on the day of the EU referendum which may have helped them to “short-sell” the pound, according to a report today.

The analysis by Bloomberg alleges that hedge funds aimed to “win big” from trades on June 23, 2016 and hired polling companies who sold them critical information.

“Pollsters said they believed Brexit yielded one of the most profitable single days in the history of their industry,” the report said. “Some hedge funds that hired them cleared in the hundreds of millions of dollars, while their industry … was battered by the chaos Brexit wrought in global financial markets.”

Bloomberg suggests hedge funds “gained confidence” through private exit polls that most Britons had voted to leave the EU or that the result would be far closer than had been predicted. This meant the funds were in the “perfect position to earn fortunes by short selling the British pound”.

Bloomberg has said this let hedge funds avoid the ensuing crash which led to chaos in the global markets.

The seven-month investigation by the media firm involved interviews with 30 current and former polling company executives, consultants and traders.

⬤ Weekly incomes for social housing tenants fe l l in the past 12 months despite more people finding work, research by the Social Market Foundation has shown.

Families in social housing in London saw their average disposable incomes decrease from £413 a week in 2017 to £406 in 2018, even though unemployment fell by four per cent.

Scott Corfe, the SMF’s chief economist, said: “Social housing tenants are working more but getting poorer.”