SCM Direct co-founder Gina Miller (pictured) has welcomed a notice from the Treasury select committee confirming it will be scrutinising Andrew Bailey’s appointment to the Bank of England.
The Treasury select committee is due to grill Bailey, who has been chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority since 2016, on Wednesday. The committee, due to be chaired by Mel Stride MP, must first formally be elected on Monday.
The committee has no formal veto over the appointment of the Bank of England governor but it is able to recommend the government selects a replacement if it finds Bailey an unsuitable candidate. It is likely to publish a report on his suitability for the role of governor after its evidence session.
Former chancellor Sajid Javid had appointed Bailey to the role just before Christmas. But Javid, who reportedly clashed with Boris Johnson’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, over the appointment, resigned as chancellor in February. Rishi Sunak has replaced him.
On Tuesday Miller urged the Treasury select committee and Sunak to launch a probe into Bailey stating he had been “asleep at the wheel” during the LCF mini-bond scandal and the Woodford Equity Income fund suspension.
Responding to the Treasury select committee plans to scrutinise Bailey’s appointment, which came out days later, Miller said she was pleased MPs were moving with “great speed and determination to scrutinise the past poor performance of Mr Bailey”.
“The hundreds of thousands of Britain’s depositors, savers, investors and pensioners whose lives have been ruined and savings squandered, on Mr Bailey’s watch as CEO of the Financial Conduct Authority, deserve no less,” she said.
“If the committee agrees the evidence against Mr Bailey is irrefutable, then they have no choice but to urge the government to find an alternative, better qualified candidate for governor.”
