UK's Hammond asks PM candidates to pledge fiscal discipline

British finance minister Philip Hammond said he wrote to the Conservative contenders to succeed Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday, urging them to commit publicly to existing budget rules and not to throw away the party's reputation for fiscal competence.

"I therefore ask you (to) ... have a clear commitment to keeping our national debt falling every year, and to maintain the current limit of the deficit at 2% of GDP at least through 2021-22," he wrote.