MP slams ‘infuriating’ IMF for intervening in UK politics
A senior MP branded the IMF ‘infuriating’, simply weeks after it waded into UK politics by advising Jeremy Hunt to not minimize taxes
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was final evening accused of dodging scrutiny because it sits on its ‘perch in Washington’ to criticise the UK.
A senior MP who chairs the Treasury choose committee branded it ‘infuriating’, simply weeks after the IMF waded into UK politics by advising Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to not minimize taxes within the Budget subsequent month and improve public spending.
The Washington-based fund additionally intervened after the mini-Budget in 2022.
Critics contend its gloomy forecasting report on the UK is lamentable.
Against this backdrop, the Treasury committee invited the IMF and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to present proof to MPs forward of the Budget. Both refused.
But whereas Conservative MP Harriet Baldwin, who chairs the committee, stated that she was ‘heartened by the positive intent and engagement shown by the OECD during our discussions’, she added: ‘The IMF’s outright refusal to allow us to scrutinise their forecasts of the UK economic system in public is infuriating.’
‘Yet they continue to utter public pronouncements about the UK from their perch in Washington. As the IMF is a public body partly funded by the UK as a shareholder, I find this incredible.’
