Lord Lamont hits out at both Mark Carney and Christine Lagarde in just two days
Lord Lamont has slammed what he sees as the "avalanche of institutional propaganda" which has been flung about in the EU referendum debate this week.
In his second blistering attack this week, the former chancellor who served in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, has taken aim at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for its warning that Brexit could trigger a recession.
Speaking at the Treasury earlier today, Christine Lagarde said that a vote to leave the European Union could push the UK into an economic downturn, would lead to lower asset prices and hit the value of the pound.
Lamont, who is now involved with the Vote Leave campaign, responded to the IMF's intervention, and the news that it will publish a one-off full examination of Brexit just days before the referendum:
This daily avalanche of institutional propaganda is becoming ludicrous and pitiful. Important institutions are being politicised and used to make blood-curdling forecasts. There are plenty of respected individual economists, plenty of respected professional investors, and plenty of entrepreneurs who take a very different view from Christine Lagarde and who have probably been better at foreseeing the future than the IMF.
– Lord Lamont, former chancellor of the exchequer
The tirade marks the second hard-hitting intervention from a former chancellor against a major institution after his attack on Mark Carney yesterday.
In response to the Bank of England's warning that the EU referendum could lead to a recession, Lamont warned that the governor himself might be responsible for tipping the UK economy over the edge.
"The governor should be careful that he doesn't cause a crisis," Lamont warned.
"If his unwise words become self-fulfilling, the responsibility will be the governor's and the governor's alone. A prudent governor would simply have said 'we are prepared for all eventualities'".
Read more: Lamont doesn't like the idea of a Brexit recession
Carney, however, dismissed the idea that the Bank could be relied on to protect the UK economy in any and all circumstances. He said the rate-setting monetary policy committee (MPC) would face a difficult trade-off between keeping inflation in check and maintaining growth and employment in a warning which raised echoes of stagflation.
The war of words hasn't just been between former chancellors and current governors and IMF chiefs.
Priti Patel – a cabinet minister – also accused George Osborne of "cashing in favours" with Lagarde after her warning this morning.