Former chancellor Ken Clarke says Conservative leadership contest has left governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney to deal with aftermath
A Tory grandee has warned that the nature of the race to replace David Cameron has left the governor of the Bank of England to deal with the fallout of the Brexit vote.
Former chancellor Ken Clarke said that Mark Carney had been "left in charge of the shop" due to Cameron's decision to stand down.
Speaking to Sky News, Clarke said: “It would help if they slightly accelerated the process because at the moment what we have out there is total uncertainty.
Read more: Ken Clarke reflects on a life spent pondering Europe
“Now, uncertainty is bad for the economy, it’s bad for investment, it’s bad for jobs, it increases the risk of recession.
“At the moment, Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, is in charge of the shop, really. He is the only person actually addressing the economic outlook – which is quite, quite worrying – untrammelled by the complications of having to campaign or vote in a leadership election.”
Today Mark Carney warned the UK is entering a period of uncertainty after the vote.
Read more: Carney loosens grip around banks and unlocks £150bn for UK economy
Clarke also called on his Conservative colleagues to bow out of the leadership race if they garnered insignificant levels of support after the first round of voting today.
Home secretary Theresa May remains the favourite in a field of five candidates, with Andrea Leadsom some way behind in second, but ahead of Michael Gove, Stephen Crabb and Liam Fox.
“The world is full of political leaders, friends of ours who are utterly astonished that we’re going through all this performance. They’re waiting to know what is the British Government now going to do," Clarke added.
“If two or three of the candidates get really tiny numbers of votes and it’s obvious that they’re not going to make the last two, I think they’d be doing everybody a service if they dropped out tonight.”