BoJo’s bankrollers bet £4.6 billion on ‘no-deal’ as Brexit report prompts anger online

Donors to PM Boris Johnson’s Tory leadership campaign are allegedly poised to make a killing from the UK’s potential no-deal exit from the EU, according to a new report.

The investigation, conducted by independent news outlet Byline Times, claims £4.6 billion of “aggregate short positions” on a no-deal Brexit crash-out have been taken out by hedge funds that directly or indirectly funded Johnson’s recent campaign.

They also claim that firms which donated to ‘Vote Leave,’ the Brexit campaign group headed by Dominic Cummings, now the PM’s most senior advisor, have taken out £3.7 billion in short positions.

In total, just under £8.3 billion of aggregate short positions have been taken out by hedge funds linked to PM Johnson and the Vote Leave campaign that he was an integral part of.

A short position is a technique used when an investor predicts that the value of a stock will decrease in the short term; hedge funds appear to be predicting a crash in a no-deal Brexit scenario.

On July 23, the day Johnson was announced as the new British Prime Minister, it was reported that “more than half of the donations received by Boris Johnson originated from donors with ties to the City.”

However, Byline alleges that this figure is in reality much higher, and that many of the hedge funds involved are set to make huge amounts of money from the hard Brexit approach Johnson is willing to entertain.

It’s prompted an angry reaction on social media from those who insist this proves a no-deal Brexit only profits mega-rich “financiers seeking to short the pound” and helps “fill the coffers of Tory offshore accounts.”

It comes after the UK government published the Operation Yellowhammer document, a ‘no-deal’ Brexit “worst-case” scenario analysis, on Wednesday. The six-page document  covers 20 “planning assumptions,” including price increases and supply disruptions in relation to fuel, medicine, food, and electricity, which it predicts will “disproportionately” affect “low-income groups.”

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