Miss Longhurst's partner, Malcolm Sentance, said the pair had known each other for four years.

BBC: Man 'murdered out of perversion'

The pound was also boosted by a warning from Bank of England monetary policy committee member Andrew Sentance against delaying raising interest rates to tackle inflation.

BBC: Builders at work

Speaking on the World at One on Thursday, Andrew Sentance, a former MPC member, stuck with his longstanding view, which is a mixture of (b) and (c): that the policy would do much for inflation, but not much for anything else.

BBC: Quantitatively more easing from the Bank