The outspoken former member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, David ‘Danny' Blanchflower, has called for the rate-setting body to be disbanded. Professor Blanchflower said the MPC was "not fit for purpose" and had made the recession deeper because of its failure to act. And he warned that the MPC may make the recovery from recession more painful by "tightening" monetary policy too early.

"After the election we are going to have to reconsider who sets monetary policy" said Blanchflower, who also argued against calls from Bank of England Governor Mervyn King for the Government to start reducing its record deficit, warning that the greatest danger for the UK economy would be "to cut too soon."

Professor Blanchflower, who served on the MPC from 2006-09 and is credited as one of the few economists to predict the recession, said today that whoever won this year's general election would have to reconsider whether the body should retain its power to set monetary policy.

Writing in his regular economics column in the New Statesman, Blanchflower said: "The MPC missed the recession entirely... The recession was much deeper because of their failure to act."

Professor Blanchflower went on to assert his view that the MPC was "asleep at the wheel", adding how its "inability to communicate adequately what quantitative easing is supposed to do suggests it has learned little."

In concluding, Blanchflower says the "MPC's days are numbered, certainly in terms of its remit and probably its membership. After the election we are going to have to reconsider who sets monetary policy."