Gordon Brown 'not most appropriate person' to head IMF, says Cameron

Prime minister accused of being 'vindictive' after indicating he will seek to block potential Brown bid to become managing director of International Monetary Fund

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Hélène Mulholland, political reporter
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 19 April 2011 15.35 BST
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Gordon Brown's hopes of becoming head of the IMF look set to be bloccked by David Cameron. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA
David Cameron has been accused of being "vindictive" after indicating that he would block any attempt by Gordon Brown to become the managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

David Blanchflower, a former Bank of England monetary policy committee member, hit out at the prime minister's suggestion that Brown "might not be the most appropriate person" to head the IMF in the light of his record in ministerial office.

Brown has emerged as the favourite to take the £270,000-a-year role when the incumbent managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, stands down.

The former prime minister, who was reportedly networking at a US conference of policymakers at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire – where the IMF was founded – last week, would need to be nominated for the post by the government.

But Cameron raised doubts about his suitability for the post, saying he was someone "who didn't think we had a debt problem in the UK when we self-evidently do".

Blanchflower accused the prime minister of appearing "extremely small minded".

"This is the most vindictive thing I've heard from a prime minister in 50 years," he said. "It looks to me to be extremely small-minded."

The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, insisted that his former boss was "eminently qualified for the job" and accused Cameron of "jumping the gun".

"To rule someone out even before the vacancy has even arisen seems to be going some, even for him," Miliband said.

"Let's see if the vacancy does arise – but I think he [Brown} would be a strong candidate."

Miliband described Brown's record over the 2007-08 financial crisis as "outstanding" and blamed the budget deficit on a worldwide financial meltdown.

He said: "The government sometimes wants to tell you the deficit caused the financial crisis – I think they're wrong about that."

Earlier today, asked whether the coalition would veto a move by Brown to take the helm, Cameron told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "I haven't spent a huge amount of time thinking about this, but it does seem to me that, if you have someone who didn't think we had a debt problem in the UK when we self-evidently do have a debt problem, then they might not be the most appropriate person to work out whether other countries around the world have debt and deficit problems."

The prime minister said it was important that the IMF was headed by "someone extraordinarily competent and capable" and praised Strauss-Kahn for doing an "excellent job" in the role.

He suggested that the IMF should look to "another part of the world" for its next leader in order to increase its global standing.

"If you think about the general principle, you've got the rise of India and China and south 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," he said.

"Above all, 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 Labour MP Jonathan Reynolds said: "It is not patriotic, or in Britain's interests, for the prime minister to play party politics with important international appointments.

"We shouldn't forget that David Cameron called it wrong on every occasion during the financial crisis."