Prime minister's comments may be fatal blow to Brown's IMF ambitions

FORMER BRITISH prime minister Gordon Brown’s chances of becoming the next head of the International Monetary Fund have been dealt a near-fatal blow, following prime minister David Cameron’s declaration that he is “not the most appropriate person”.

Mr Cameron’s action provoked fury within Labour last night, with Mr Brown’s successor, Ed Miliband, saying the decision to “rule someone out even before the vacancy has even arisen seems to be going some even for him”.

So far, Mr Brown has kept his own counsel about his desires to succeed Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn in the influential IMF job, but he has repeatedly been mentioned as a likely candidate. Mr Strauss-Kahn may quit early to contest the French presidential election.

Questioned yesterday, Mr Cameron said that because Mr Brown is someone “who didn’t think we had a debt problem in the UK when we self-evidently do . . . then they might not be the most appropriate person to work out whether other countries around the world have debt and deficit problems”.

He went on: “What matters is – is the person running the IMF someone who understands the dangers of excessive debt, excessive deficit?

“And it really must be someone who gets that, rather than someone who says that they don’t see a problem.”

The Conservative leader gave hints that he may use his influence over the selection of the Mr Strauss-Kahn’s replacement to build alliances with Asian countries, who have long bridled at their lack of power in the organisation. The choice of a non-European would increase the IMF’s standing in the world, he said.

“We’ve got the rise of India and China and southeast Asia, a shift in the world’s focus, and it may well be the time for the IMF to start thinking about that shift in focus too.”

Besides Mr Strauss-Kahn, the 10 most senior positions in the IMF are held by Europeans under a long-standing “gentlemen’s agreement” that has seen the leadership of the World Bank held by Americans.