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Former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney endorsed Labour’s “serious” finance spokesperson Rachel Reeves on Monday, offering a boost to the opposition party as it hopes to win over business and form the next U.K. government.
In a video message to Labour’s annual conference, Carney, who served as the U.K.’s top central banker from 2013 to 2020, heaped praise on Reeves and said it was “beyond time” her plans were put “into action.”
It marks the latest intervention in day-to-day politics from Carney, who was appointed to the key post by then-Conservative Chancellor George Osborne and also advised Boris Johnson.
In the clip, which was beamed into the Liverpool conference hall after Reeves’ own address Monday, Carney said Reeves was “a serious economist.”
“She began her career at the Bank of England, so she understands the big picture,” he said. “But, crucially, she understands the economics of work, of place and family. And, look, it is beyond time we put her energy and ideas into action.”
The ringing endorsement from Carney, who served as Canada’s top central banker before taking on the Bank of England job, comes weeks after he took direct aim at Liz Truss, the short-lived Conservative prime minister who Labour accuses of presiding over economic “chaos.”
Carney said Truss “delivered Argentina on the Channel,” and hit out at “extreme conservatives” with a “basic misunderstanding of what drives economies.”
Since leaving Threadneedle Street, Carney has chaired Brookfield Asset Management, and advised then-Prime Minister Johnson on climate finance as the U.K. presided over the COP26 United Nations Climate Change conference.
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