Corbyn will ‘sack BoE Governor if he doesn’t print money’

'Corbynomics' would see quantitative easing. Picture: PA

Richard Murphy, the architect of “Corbynomics”, has branded the independence of the Bank of England as “a fiasco” and claimed it does not really exist.

And he said that if a Bank of England Governor - currently the Canadian Mark Carney - refused to agree to “people’s quantitative easing”, the term for printing money for public projects, then he would be “on the next plane out of the country.”

He said: “There is no such thing as Bank of England independence, there never has been; it’s a fiasco put together, a facade created to appease people to put forward a presentation of something that doesn’t exist.”

The statement came in a frenetic day of campaigning in the Labour leadership contest with the winner due to be unveiled on 12 September.

The hard-left candidate Mr Corbyn, who is now the clear favourite to win, also made a bid to take the high ground on political reform by announcing plans for a fund to help people from low income backgrounds to become MPs.

It came as shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper was voted for by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. His second preference was Andy Burnham and third Liz Kendall, ahead of a weekend appearance at the Edinburgh Book Festival where he will set out his choice.

In a speech today Ms Cooper will promise to modernise politics by adopting a series of proposals put forward by the SNP.

These included votes at 16, suggesting that the language of the chamber should be modernised, “hear hear” should be dropped and clapping allowed, and there should be a freeze or cap on appointments to the Lords before democratic reform to the Upper House.

She also proposed Labour having a new diversity champion responsible for significantly increasing representation at all levels of the Labour Party from ethnic minority communities, disabled people and women.

She will say: “As I have made clear throughout the leadership campaign, Parliament should look like the country it represents and we have a lot of work to do to make that a reality.”

The other main contender Andy Burnham warned in a speech last night that Labour is in danger of splitting.

He said: “The longer this contest goes on, the more Labour risks turning inward and talking to ourselves.”

But he promised: “I am very clear that under my leadership, we will have the strongest opposition ever - taking on the Tories, getting after them day in day out, setting out a clear and radical alternative. But we need more. Under my leadership we will also build a party that will not just take the Tories on, but kick the Tories out.”