Monday 31 October 2016 7:14 pm

The best political reactions to Mark Carney’s decision to stay at the Bank of England to 2019

Mark Carney today revealed that he would remain as governor of the Bank of England until 2019, adding an extra year to his original plan of a five year stay.

It means his tenure still falls short of the original offer of an eight year role, but still adds to Carney's long held plan to quit in 2018.

With Carney having become an increasingly polarising figure in the aftermath of Brexit, here are some of the best responses to the decision…

Conservatives

Andrew Tyrie – Treasury Select Committee chair

The much needed clarification is welcome. The less uncertainty the better.

Still, the Treasury Committee concluded in November 2011 that a non-renewable term of 8 years for the post of governor was appropriate. The government agreed, and changed the law in the Financial Services Act 2012, in line with the recommendation. In making this announcement, the government and the governor are sticking neither to the timetable set out in the exchange of letters, nor returning to the statute.

Stephen Hammond – Treasury committee member

There are some people who are very critical and I think even the Treasury Committee was very surprised about the last round of Quantitative Easing which looked a bit early.

But on the whole he has been a good governor and we are going to face some uncertain times so it's probably a good idea to have some stability over the Article 50 period in terms of monetary policy.

Mark Field- Cities of London and Westminster MP

I felt that [Carney] was too close to George Osborne as chancellor just in relation to interest rate policy, but there is obviously a lot of potential for turbulence at this point.

And the one thing that the Treasury and the Bank of England must do is to maintain confidence in the markets and stability will be crucial to that.

Chris Chope – Leave campaigner MP

At least he is not going to stay the whole duration [to 2021]. If he is going to stay until 2019 at lease when Brexit takes effect we can have someone else who will be a bit more positive about it.

The fact that he was so hostile to Brexit, making warnings which proved to be unsubstantiated, I'm surprised he doesn't feel the need to pack up rather sooner.

John Redwood – Long-term Eurosceptic MP

[Carney] has now got to show he has genuine independence and knows how to forecast the economy accurately.

His predictions for the first quarter of 2017 are too low, and he would bewise to revise those upwards quickly.

More recently, he waited for a month or so [after the Brexit vote], and the economy was doing fine, and he cut interest rates.

I'm now hoping he will get the facts right and make good calls, because it is in all of our interests that he does.

Dan Hannan – Brexiteer MEP

The best thing Mark Carney can do the for British economy now is stick narrowly to his brief.

He says he wants to be independent of government, but it was his apparently lack of independence from George Osborne that landed him in hot water.

And one leading Tory brexiteer

My sense is that if [Carney] is going to stay to 2019 he needs to find a way to row in behind the Prime Minister and start to find a way to be a bit more positive.

I would like hm to stay and do a good job, and demonstrate some enthusiasm for leaving the EU, seeing as we are going to.

Labour

Jonathan Reynolds – shadow City minister

Mark Carney's decision to remain as Bank of England governor is good news for the UK in a time of deep uncertainty. The Governor's actions helped calm the situation in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote, when in contrast the Government had no plan at all.

As John McDonnell said only last week, the operational independence of the Bank of England must be sacrosanct. This behaviour from Tory politicians is deeply irresponsible and only further highlights why it was Labour that decided to give the Bank of England independence.

Lib Dems

Susan Kramer- Treasury spokesperson

The governor is owed a debt of gratitude for his actions over Brexit. When in June last year the Conservative party descended into infighting and back stabbing, he was working to save tens of thousands of jobs and protect our economy from the worst impacts of the leave vote.

It’s no surprise he is now willing to leave the Conservative Brexit government to the mess they’ve created. Sadly, his departure will mean even more uncertainty for business at a time when the desperately need confidence.