Leave leaders back Carney, Osborne as UK grapples with Brexit fallout

By William Schomberg and Ana Nicolaci da Costa
LONDON, June 27 (Reuters) - The leaders of the campaign to
get Britain out of the European Union sought to ease concerns
about the country's uncertain economic future by giving public
backing to Bank of England Governor Mark Carney and finance
minister George Osborne.
In the run-up to last week's referendum, Carney and Osborne
incensed Leave campaigners by warning that a vote to pull out of
the EU would hit the economy.
Carney faced a call for his resignation from one lawmaker
from the ruling Conservative Party during the campaign, and last
week the official Vote Leave campaign released a video attacking
Carney over his previous employment with Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS).
But Boris Johnson, who is now considered the front-runner to
become Britain's next prime minister after steering the Leave
campaign to victory, used his first comments since the vote to
heap praise on the Canadian.
"Most sensible people can see that Bank of England Governor
Mark Carney has done a superb job - and now that the referendum
is over, he will be able to continue his work without being in
the political firing-line," Johnson wrote in a column in the
Daily Telegraph newspaper.
A few hours later, justice minister Michael Gove, who led
Vote Leave with Johnson, praised Osborne for saying that Britain
would cope with the turmoil caused by the referendum result.
"I listened to the chancellor and I found his words
incredibly reassuring," Gove told a crowd of reporters as he
left his house.
"The chancellor's statement today provided the reassurance
that people need, and I am looking forward to hearing from the
prime minister later."
Osborne said the world's fifth-biggest economy would cope
with the volatility that lay ahead and he would not rush into an
emergency round of tax hikes and spending cuts, something he had
raised as a possibility in the referendum campaign as he sought
to persuade voters to vote to remain in the EU.
Osborne also said he would address his future in the
Conservative Party in the coming days.
Investors have responded with alarm to the 52-48 percent
vote in favour of Britain leaving the EU on Thursday and the
subsequent sense of political vacuum after Prime Minister David
Cameron said he would resign.
Sterling fell by more than 8 percent against the dollar on
Friday and was down by a further 2 percent on Monday although it
briefly edged up after Osborne's comments.
The yield on 10-year British government bonds fell below 1
percent for the first time as investors continued to seek safe
places to put their money.
Not everyone agreed that Carney should remain at the BoE,
including Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party,
which has campaigned to leave the European Union for years.
"I don't want to be disparaging about one of your
nationals," Farage told Canada's Global and Mail newspaper in an
interview.
"I don't think the governor of the Bank of England behaved
in an independent manner during this campaign at all. And I
think there will be some real questions in Parliament about
whether it's appropriate for him to continue in that role."