Bank of England governor Mark Carney has sent an angry letter to a senior figure in the Vote Leave campaign which has accused Carney of breaching purdah rules in the run-up to the referendum.
The BBC reports it has seen an exchange of letters between Vote Leave director Bernard Jenkin MP and Carney over whether the Bank of England had made its views known on whether the UK should vote to stay or leave the European Union.
Jenkin wrote: “You have already made your views known about the question of the forthcoming referendum.
“The concern is that you, as governor of the Bank of England, or others who serve the Bank, may have occasion to make further public comment on matters arising from the question on the ballot paper for the referendum.
“You are prohibited from making any public comment, or doing anything which could be construed as taking part in the referendum debate.”
Jenkin went on to sat he had taken legal advice and wanted to “stress the importance of this matter.”
He added: “I very much hope you will avoid doing anything which could suggest you or the Bank have disregarded Parliament’s wishes.”
Carney has responded saying he has not made his views known on the referendum.
In his letter, Carney says: “Nor do I intend to share my private opinion other than via the anonymity of [the] ballot box when I join millions of others to cast my vote.”
“All of the public comments that I, or other Bank officials, have made regarding issues related to the referendum have been limited to factors that affect the Bank’s statutory responsibilities and have been entirely consistent with our remits.”
He adds Jenkins’ letter “demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of central bank independence.”
There – who didn’t realize that… Mark Carney can vote next week – as he is an Irish Citizen (as well as Canadian)! Who on earth continued to allow the Irish (and ‘resident’ Commonwealth citizens incidentally) to vote in our such elections I don’t know but I can’t imagine many Irish voting ‘Leave’ eh! Ireland stopped being even a Commonwealth country in 1949.
How would Carney vote if his Canadian Government had a vote on becoming the 53rd State of the USA, he has already stated that we should not leave the EU and I thought that in his position he was not allowed to air his view on this
I will amend my previous comment in that he did not state etc etc, it was stated “The governor of the Bank of England (BoE) has warned that leaving the European Union could result in an “extended period of uncertainty”
His comments should NOT be aired in public, because coming from someone in his position could influence voters and on that note he should keep his nose out of our countries politics.
Google: Brexit The Movie. Enlightening stuff.
“Carney has responded saying he has not made his views known on the referendum.” Funny thing, I thought that is exactly what he did on television!