What looked like the first stirrings of a recovery in the pound Tuesday morning has given way to more selling, as the British currency tumbled to $1.2502 - just above a key psychological threshold - following reports that the conservatives' 1922 committee had finally received the 48 letters of no confidence necessary to trigger a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Theresa May. The no confidence letter count stood at 46 as recently as Tuesday morning. However, a few frustrated remainers joined with their Brexiteer peers to push the total over the top. What's worse, the gesture of contempt comes as May is out of the country on a "whistlestop" our of European capitals in a desperate bid to achieve "assurances" on the Irish backstop that multiple EU leaders have said they wouldn't be willing to give. In what has become a regular feature of the Brexit chaos, reports that the threshold had been reached were almost immediately contradicted... Masses of speculation about the numbers going in - lots of people hoping the 48 has been reached, but not clear - ‘we’ll def have them by....’ - fill in the blanks - but as https://twitter.com/BethRigby?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); says, mood seems to be hardening towards PM for sure https://t.co/SHA1iSw5Wg — Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) https://twitter.com/bbclaurak/status/1072523518829576193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); ...Which was followed by a wave of reports insisting that yes, the threshold has been reached. Here we go again. An ERG source writes: "They've reached 48 letters. Whitehall confirmed and someone in the chairman's office." — Adam Payne (@adampayne26) https://twitter.com/adampayne26/status/1072526319324487682?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); And as fate would have it, this bout of internecine warfare among the Tories is brewing just as Labour is reportedly backing away from its plans to call for a no confidence vote in May's government.