THE Bank of England should be renamed to make clear it covers Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well, a Labour peer has said.
Lord Harrison said it would be an "inclusive" act in the wake of the Scottish independence referendum and suggested calling it the Bank of England and the United Kingdom.
But his claims met with widespread disagreement across the House of Lords. Lord Harrison said at question time in the Lords: "Given the particular saliency of the currency issue in the recent Scottish referendum, wouldn't it be a wise act and an inexpensive and an inclusive act to extend the title of Britain's central bank to that of the Bank of England of the United Kingdom?
Lord Newby, replying for the government, rejected the proposal. "Having begun life in 1694 as a commercial bank, the Bank of England predates the formation of the
United Kingdom itself," he said.