UK PM Johnson spokesman: Will not ask for an extension to Brexit transition period

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman repeated on Thursday that the UK will not ask for an extension to the Brexit transition period and added that they will reject it if the EU were to ask for it.

Additional takeaways

"The government will be guided by scientific and medical advice on what measures should stay in place to tackle coronavirus."

"We don't want to undo the good work that has been done by releasing measures too soon."

"We need to do more on testing, need to reach 100,000 tests a day by the end of the month."

"We are moving towards a position where we will have in excess of 20,000 ventilators."

Market reaction

The UK's FTSE 100 largely ignored these comments and was last up 0.4% on the day at 5,619.76 points while the GBP/USD pair was down 0.22% at 1.2487.