In his seven years as Bank of England governor, Carney was charming and self-confident but had a volcanic temper
Smart, smooth, tough and a liberal globalist to the ends of his fingertips. That was how Mark Carney came across in his near seven-year stint as governor of the Bank of England. Judging by how he ran the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, Donald Trump should not expect too much flattery from Canada’s new prime minister.
Quite the opposite, in fact. From the moment he took over as governor from Mervyn King in 2013, it was clear Carney considered himself to be the smartest man in the room and wanted to make sure everybody knew it. He was not a man to suffer fools gladly, so the scene is set for a mighty clash of egos when prime minister meets president.
Carney arrived in the UK with a reputation as the rock star central banker and was quite the contrast with his predecessor King. Where previous governors had avoided the limelight, Carney quickly became something of a celebrity. That was not really for what he did but for how he looked.
The fashion pages analysed the man bag he turned up with at his first big speech at the University of Nottingham. He was photographed at a music festival. He seemed cosmopolitan and glamorous: the George Clooney lookalike who could wax lyrical not just about quantitative easing but about which indie bands he was listening to.
When Carney was appointed by the then chancellor, George Osborne, it was pre-Brexit, pre-Trump, pre-Covid and pre-Ukraine war. A liberal globaliser, Barack Obama, was president of the US, and a liberal globaliser, David Cameron, was prime minister of the UK. Times have changed.
In 2025, liberal globalisers are far thinner on the ground and those that remain now talk the language of populists. The Carney I knew was a strong believer in open markets and free trade. By instinct, he was – and presumably still is – opposed to protectionism. There is no small irony in the fact that liberal globalisers are now being forced to confront the reality of the world they helped to create.
Osborne had to fight hard to secure Carney’s services. When he rejected the financial package on offer to him as governor, Osborne made it more generous. When Carney said he didn’t fancy a full eight-year stint, it was cut to five. But Osborne, who had vastly increased the powers of the Bank of England after the global financial crisis of 2008, was determined to get his man. In the newly beefed-up Bank, Carney was responsible both for monetary policy – which primarily involves setting interest rates – and financial stability. In the end, his term was extended and he only left the Bank in March 2020, just as the UK economy was facing its Covid lockdown.
Carney was intellectually self-confident and worked ferociously hard, but had a central banker’s caution when it came to public statements. His answers to questions often went on for several minutes, making them pretty much unquotable, as I found out the first time I interviewed him. Given a 30-minute slot, I realised after 25 minutes that he had said nothing that would remotely make a news story. The new governor’s views about the UK housing market eventually did the trick in the nick of time.
The verbal obfuscation was quite deliberate and Carney could deliver a crisp soundbite when he thought the moment warranted it. The classic example of that came on the morning of 24 June 2016 – the day after the UK’s Brexit referendum. Britain had voted to leave the EU, Cameron had announced he was stepping down as prime minister, and the pound was in freefall.
Carney thought Brexit a bad idea but knew that at that moment the markets needed reassurance. Standing behind a lectern at the Bank of England, he duly provided it. Showing he can keep a calm head in a crisis should stand him in good stead in his new job.
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If he chose to be, Carney could be charming. Once he stepped down as governor he would find the time to chat at events such as the World Economic Forum in Davos. Sometimes this was about his new role, seeking private sector financial backing to combat global heating. But the last time we spoke, Carney was railing against the points deduction imposed on Everton by the Premier League. Canada’s new prime minister has family connections to Merseyside and is a diehard blue.
There was another side to Carney’s character. Journalists sometimes caught a glimpse of his volcanic temper and Bank staff were wary of getting on the wrong side of him. As a governor he was respected but not especially liked.
Larry Elliott was economics editor of the Guardian from 1996 to 2024
