Bank of England governor calls for early Brexit referendum

Bank of England governor Mark Carney indicated he's in favour of UK prime minister David Cameron holding an early referendum on the UK's European Union membership.

The vote should take place “as soon as necessary,” Carney said on BBC Radio on Thursday.

“It’s in the interests of everybody that there is clarity about the processes and the question and the decision.”

Mr Cameron, who won a majority in parliament in this month's election, has pledged to hold a referendum by the end of 2017 on whether the UK should stay in the EU. He first wants to renegotiate membership terms, and his chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne says the UK will take a tough line in talks.

Mr Carney tried to sidestep the timing question, telling the interviewer “that’s all you’re going to get,” and never made a specific comment on a preferred date.

He has previously waded into fraught political issues, and his remarks in the buildup to last year’s Scottish independence referendum were seized upon by pro- union campaigners.

Mr Cameron still plans to hold the referendum by the end of 2017, and will do so earlier if possible, his spokesman Jean-Christophe Gray told reporters in London.

Mr Carney said that while companies are aware of the potential political uncertainty developing before the EU vote, there is as yet no sign that it is affecting investment decisions.

“What they’ve been telling us, and we see this in the statistics, is that they have not yet acted on that uncertainty,” he said. “Or to put it another way, they are continuing to invest, they’re continuing to hire.”

The referendum pledge was a major battleground during the election campaign, with former Labour prime minister Tony Blair warning that the spectre of Britain leaving the EU would inflict "chaos" on the economy.

Bloomberg