Mark Carney has said he is willing to remain the governor at the Bank of England if it will ensure a “smooth” Brexit transition.
Carney was scheduled to step down as the bank’s governor in June 2019 but has left hints he could plan to stay beyond this date.
“Even though I have already agreed to extend my time to support a smooth Brexit, I am willing to do whatever else I can in order to promote both a smooth Brexit and an effective transition at the Bank of England.”
“I am signalling a willingness to do whatever I can to support this process,” added Carney, talking to MPs on the Treasury committee.
The Governor at Threadneedle Street said nothing was yet confirmed but there would be an announcement in the near future.
“We (the Bank) have a very important supportive role to make sure whatever Brexit the government negotiates, that Parliament decides, that that is as much of a success as possible,” he said.
Carney has been with the Bank of England since 2013 when he was the first non-Brit to take the role in the lender’s 300-year history.
The government had initially played down the reports of his position and said the plan was still for him to leave in 2019.
Carney has had mixed reviews of his time at the Bank of England.
The governor has not gone down well with pro-Brexit campaigners, who have accused him of “crying wolf” before the EU Brexit referendum when he predicted that voting to leave could lead to a recession.
Last month, he was called the “high priest of Project Fear” by Conservative Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg.
The former UKIP leader Nigel Farage even called on Carney to resign from the Bank of England.
