GORDON BROWN came under fire yesterday from the Governor of the Bank of England over the prolonged delay in filling a vacant seat on its Monetary Policy Committee created by Richard Lambert’s departure to run the CBI.

In the latest sign of rising tensions between the Bank and the Chancellor, Mervyn King delivered coded but withering criticism of how Mr Brown goes about selecting members of the powerful interest rate-setting committee.

It is now almost four months since Mr Lambert announced his unexpected resignation from the MPC and there has been little sign of progress in finding a successor.

Earlier this month The Times revealed growing irritation inside the Bank over the lengthening delay, which comes after previous episodes in which the Chancellor was accused of a cavalier approach to MPC appointments, notably over replacing Sir David Clementi as Deputy Governor in 2002.

Yesterday Mr King went public with his disquiet. He told MPs on the Commons Treasury Select Committee: “It’s the timing. It’s not the people or how the process works in essence. It’s trying to find a mechanism for ensuring that decisions are taken in a timely way.

“At present, (we have) something that is very informal and seems to result in appointments being made very much at the last minute. I can’t think of anyone who benefits from that.”

The Governor added his view that there should be “some presumptive timetable” and that “some way of making it (the appointment process) a bit more systematic would be helpful”.

Challenged over the remarks, the Chancellor later said that he expected to announce a new MPC member’s selection “soon”.

Mr King acknowledged that it was important that time was taken to find the right person to fill the positions. “There will always be vacancies when people leave unexpectedly, and it’s more important to take one’s time to get the appointment right than to rush into a replacement . . . What matters is getting it right. But to do that I suspect does mean a slightly more systematic process.”

The Governor’s intervention comes at a time when concern over the depleted ranks on the MPC has been heightened by the untimely death last week of another highly respected external member of the committee, David Walton.

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