Bank of England’s (BoE) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) member Michael Saunders laid out a case for rate hike during a speech on Thursday. He said that the UK labor market is quickly approaching full employment, while the inflation is above Bank of England’s (BoE) 2 percent target and that calls for a pragmatic approach. According to him, the central bank should not push break so much that it hurts the economy but it also no longer needs to press the easing accelerator so firmly. He believes do not call that even the risks associated with Brexit do not justify such low rate, which is currently at 0.25 percent. It has been a decade since the central bank raised interest rates. Saunders has been one of the two members who has voted in favor of rate hike at the last meeting.

Though two members of the MPC voted in favor of a 25 basis points hike at the last meeting, the number declined from three in the prior meeting. The pound has been struggling to make gains despite weaker dollar as the number of hawks declined and as the exchange rate failed to clear an important downtrend line that that has been in place since 2014. The pound is currently trading at 1.29 against the dollar.