Mark Carney accused of spreading George Osborne’s Brexit ‘propaganda’

Bank of England governor Mark Carney was accused of spreading Chancellor George Osborne’s EU “propaganda” by a Conservative MP today.

Pro-Brexit Jacob Rees-Mogg, who called for Carney to be sacked earlier this month, again accused Carney and the Treasury of having “undue influence”politically after Carney claimed leaving the EU could plunge the UK into a recession – a view now substantiated by yesterday’s Treasury report and echoed by Osborne and Prime Minister David Cameron.

In a Treasury Select Committee meeting today Rees-Mogg, addressing Carney, said: “It’s very convenient that you’re giving out the same propaganda as the Chancellor. Don’t you have a responsibility to be apolitical?

“By getting involved in the details of something that is actually more fundamental than the [general] election campaign, that fundamentally undermines the standing of the Bank of England and its appearance of independence.”

Carney responded: “I don’t think I’ve had a telephone conversation with the Chancellor on these issues.

“There’s no possibility of undue influence. There is no possibility of effective influence even if it had been tried.”

He added: “We have a broader responsibility to the British people who don’t want this kept from them. They expect us to come straight with them about issues and they expect us to take action to the extent possible to mitigate those risks.

“We have not supported a side in the campaign. The only side we have supported is the pursuit of low and stable predicable inflation which is our remit.

“By our commentary which may be inconvenient for you, we have made it more likely that we will bring inflation back to target whatever the outcome of the referendum, sooner and more sustainably, and that will be a better economic outcome.”

“To suggest otherwise is to undermine that.”

But Rees-Mogg hit back: “I do suggest otherwise. I think you have become politically involved.”

The EU referendum will take place on 23 June.