Mark Carney could announce a decision about whether to step down as governor of the Bank of England in 2018 as soon as Thursday, amid a barrage of criticism from Eurosceptic MPs about his approach to Brexit.
It is understood the governor is considering making an announcement on Thursday at a press conference for the bank’s third-quarter inflation report, given the speculation about his future.
However, sources said Carney was equally likely to delay the announcement until later in November and would take the decision based on his personal circumstances. George Osborne, the former chancellor, played a key role in recruiting Carney for the move from Canada to the UK for the job in 2013.
The governor said last week he would decide by the end of this year about whether to stay on for his full eight-year term or take advantage of terms allowing him to leave after five years.
 “To be clear, it’s an entirely personal decision and no one should read anything into that decision in terms of government policy. It is a privilege for me to have this role,” he told a parliamentary committee last week.
“Like everyone, I have personal circumstances that I have to manage. This role demands total attention and I intend to give it as long as I can.”
Theresa May prompted questions about whether there has been a rift between Carney and the Downing Street after she criticised the impact of quantitative easing in her Conservative party conference speech, saying “people with assets had got richer, people without them had suffered”. Both sides have played down any suggestion of divisions since then, with the pair recently talking on the phone.
Greg Clark, the business secretary, told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show yesterday Carney has done a “tremendous job” for the UK economy.
However, there has also been a mounting campaign against the governor by leading Tory Eurosceptics who were annoyed by his pre-referendum predictions about the possible impact of Brexit on the UK economy, which they claim have not come to pass.
Those calling for him to go early include Lord Lawson, the former chancellor; Bernard Jenkin, the chair of the public administration committee; Jacob Rees-Mogg, a member of the Treasury committee; and Daniel Hannan, a leading MEP.
Before the vote, Carney suggested campaigners in favour of leaving the EU were “in denial” about some of the economic risks, although he has sounded more positive about the UK’s prospects since the referendum.
The former foreign secretary, William Hague, warned earlier this month that central bankers could lose their independence if they ignored public anger over low interest rates, while Michael Gove, the leading pro-leave campaigner and former cabinet minister, compared Carney to the Chinese emperor Ming, whose “person was held to be inviolable and without imperfections” and whose critics were flayed alive.
Two former members of the Bank of England monetary policy committee have rallied to Carney’s defence. Andrew Sentance, who served from 2006 to 2011, told the Guardian that the story had been “hyped up following Theresa May’s comments and articles by William Hague and Michael Gove”.
“If the question is whether Carney is going to stay beyond 2018, when he was appointed he wasn’t going to stay beyond 2018. If he makes a clear decision then it gives the government plenty of time to appoint a successor.
“I think he has been targeted a bit unfairly by the pro-leave Brexit campaign. The consequences of Brexit are going to play out over a number of years and to say the economy hasn’t collapsed after Brexit means Carney got it badly wrong is unfair.
“He made it clear that he thought leaving the EU would be negative for the UK and the timescale over which that plays out depends on how that unfolds, but to jump to the conclusion within a few months when nothing has greatly changed – we are still in the EU – I think some of the criticisms of him from Brexiteers, as you might call them, have been unfair.”
David Blanchflower, who was on the committee from 2006 to 2009, said on Twitter that it was “ludicrous for Brexiters to force Carney” as it would only hurt the UK economy.