The Reform leader has been condemned for wanting to politicise the Bank of England
Nigel Farage has said he would put a Brexiteer in charge of the Bank of England if Reform wins the next election.
The current governor Andrew Bailey’s term will run until March 2028, and Labour will likely appoint the next Bank of England boss.
That means Farage would have to remove a sitting governor to install his own candidate.
In an interview with Bloomberg in Davos yesterday, “I haven’t questioned central bank independence in terms of its inflation targets, I’ve questioned who the central bank governor is.
“In a post-Brexit Britain, we should have chosen a governor who viewed Brexit as an incredible opportunity, not as a damage-limitation exercise.”
Farage also used the interview to once again promote cryptocurrency.
Reform’s largest donor, Christopher Harborne, who gave the party a record £9 million in December, is a crypto investor and owns a 12% stake in Tether, the stablecoin company.
At a meeting with Bailey in September, Farage and Richard Tice urged the Bank of England to welcome cryptocurrency.
He said: “Andrew Bailey is a perfectly pleasant man, but when you see that recently he was suggesting that we put a limit of £20,000 on the amount of stablecoins any individual can own, you realise that he’s stuck way back in the 20th century.”
Farage said “somebody who’s pro-Brexit” should run the Bank of England instead, “somebody who understands that we are literally falling decades behind our American competitors in terms of industry, manufacturing and energy”.
A YouGov poll carried out in June last year, found that nine years after Brexit, 56% of the public believe that leaving the EU was the wrong decision for the UK, compared with 31% who said it was the right decision.
In addition, a Deltapoll Survey carried out earlier this month revealed that nearly six in ten (58%) of people would vote for the UK to rejoin the EU if a second Brexit referendum were held.
Responding to Farage’s comments, Naomi Smith, Chief Executive at Best for Britain, said: “Brexit architect Farage is correct to frame the USA as a competitor – particularly while it’s being run by his good friend Donald Trump, whose security strategy and subsequent speeches have shown he views the UK as ripe for subjugation.
“But by suggesting he would politicise a vital independent institution like the Bank of England, Farage is once again copying policy ideas straight from the authoritarian playbook. Voters only need to look at former Bank of England governor Mark Carney for inspiration about how a country should be run.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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