Sterling advanced on Wednesday after the minutes of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee meeting revealed a surprising three-way split on the best path for UK interest rates.

The minutes from the central bank’s July meeting showed Timothy Besley voted for a 25 basis point rise to 5.25 per cent to combat inflation, while David Blanchflower voted for a cut, and the rest of the nine-strong committee voted to keep rates on hold at 5 per cent.