There have been several forecasts this week for the BOE to begin hiking rates later this year.
Citibank sees two 25 bp rate hikes before year-end to 1%. Yesterday, SocGen forecast two 50 bp hikes before the end of the year.
The combination of European sovereign debt concerns and rate hike anticipation have driven EUR/GBP lower this week and kept cable reasonably well supported against a resurgent dollar.