Brown is widely respected in international financial circles

Brown ‘greatest candidate for IMF’

Brown ‘greatest candidate for IMF’

By politics.co.uk staff

Gordon Brown is the greatest candidate running to become head of the IMF, according to the former president of the World Bank.

Writing in the Evening Standard, Sir James Wolfensohn said the former British prime minister had led the world through a potentially calamitous financial crisis.

“Gordon Brown has proved that he has the leadership skills, the vision and the determination to bring the world together,” he wrote.

“All candidates being considered have great talent but for me there is no greater candidate than Gordon Brown.”
Sir James’ support is unlikely to clinch the deal for Mr Brown, who has failed to win backing in Paris, Washington or Berlin.

He was all-but ruled out for the job when David Cameron and George Osborne expressed their opposition, prompting angry accusation that the Tories were putting ‘party before country’.

Britain is backing French finance minister Christine Lagarde to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn as the IMF’s managing director.