Mervyn King faces call to quit over stinging assessment of David Cameron

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King today faced a call to resign after his private criticism of David Cameron and George Osborne was made public by the website WikiLeaks.

Professor David Blanchflower, a former member of the Bank's monetary policy committee, accused Mr King of committing the "unforgivable sin" of compromising the bank's independence.

"He is expected to be politically neutral but he has shown himself to be politically biased and as a result is now in an untenable position. King must go," he said.

The Commons Treasury select committee warned it would be watching the Governor with "vigilance".

Mr King came under fire after a leaked diplomatic cable from the US ambassador in London, Louis Susman, to Washington showed the bank chief had raised "great concern" over the "lack of experience" of Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne weeks before the election.

He is said to have told Mr Susman that, having met Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne to talk about the deficit, he felt they "had a tendency to think about issues only in terms of politics, and how they might affect Tory electorability".

The Governor apparently "opined that party leader David Cameron and shadow chancellor George Osborne have not fully grasped the pressures they will face from different groups when attempting to cut spending".

The diplomatic traffic also tells how the Governor had "pressed for details about how they plan to tackle the debt, but received only generalities".

The Bank of England, Downing Street and Treasury were today tight-lipped about Mr King's remarks.

A Bank spokesman said: "The governor has a very effective working relationship with the Prime Minister and Chancellor."