Cameron: Brown ‘not right’ for IMF top job
David Cameron told the Today programme he did not think Gordon Brown should be the next head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF):
“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.
“I certainly don’t want a washed-up politician from another country. It’s very important the IMF is led by someone extraordinarily competent and capable and I think Dominique Strauss Kahn does an excellent job at the moment.
“It may well be that actually, when you think that the IMF has got to be listened to and taken seriously by countries not only in the West but all over the world, it may well be it’s time to have a candidate from another part of the world to increase its standing in the world.
“As I say I haven’t spent a huge amount of time on this issue, I’ve been busy with a lot of international issues as well as the domestic situation. But if you think about the general principle, we’ve got the rise of India and China and South-East 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 too.
“But above all, what matters is the person running the IMF, someone understands the dangers of excessive debt, excessive deficit and it really must be someone who gets that rather than someone who says they don’t see a problem.”
