Downing Street Says » Chancellor/IMF

» Friday, March 5, 2004

Chancellor/IMF

Asked if the Prime Minister was ‘miffed’ that the IMF was attempting to poach his Chancellor, the PMOS said that this was speculation. The reports about the Chancellor appeared to have emanated from the US. In his experience of Westminster, the file marked ‘Political Job Speculation’ was a rather large one. Being head of the IMF was a big job. Equally, the Chancellor had a big job to do here in the UK. Asked if No 10 and No 11 had discussed the issue, the PMOS said that there was regular contact between the two of us, as you would expect. He was not aware of any discussion about the substance of the story. Asked if the Prime Minister was concerned that the reports might be unsettling for the City, the PMOS said the Prime Minister believed that the fact that senior members of his Government were linked to jobs outside was probably an inevitable fact of political life. That said, it obviously reflected well on the talent within the Prime Minister’s Government.

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Here’s the BBC’s story on this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3534933.stm
Comment by Tom Steinberg — 6 Mar 2004 on 10:04 am | Link
I think the PMOS might be getting above himself: "Asked if No 10 and No 11 had discussed the issue, the PMOS said that there was regular contact between the two of *us*" — note "us", not "them". Hmm.

This is an intriguing story. Presumably it’s a marker laid down as part of the Brown/Blair/Granita power struggle, but taking it at face value for a moment, it looks from http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/chron/mds.asp as if heads of national banks are favoured as IMF managing directors; but a finance minister like Brown isn’t completely out of the running.
Comment by Chris Lightfoot — 6 Mar 2004 on 11:09 am | Link

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Chancellor/IMF

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