BoE's Posen: King crossed the line on fiscal policy

LONDON Nov 25 (Reuters) - Some Bank of England policymakers felt Governor Mervyn King's statement with the bank's May Inflation Report was "excessively political" in its support for a tough austerity drive to tackle the UK's budget deficit, policymaker Adam Posen said on Thursday.

Posen said dissenting Monetary Policy Committee members raised the issue with Governor Mervyn King, who has this year offered unusually vocal support for the harsh deficit reduction plan adopted by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition.

Posen said the majority of the MPC was comfortable with the language in the statement, which was published after Britain's May 6 parliamentary election.

"There was a difference of opinion at the MPC, in particular in the main meeting, over a particular paragraph in the report that was talking about the need for a particular speed with which to deal with the fiscal policy," Posen told lawmakers.

"A number of the people on the committee, myself plus at least one other ... were concerned that that statement could be seen as excessively political in the context of the election."

One of the big issues in the May election was how swiftly the record budget deficit needed to be dealt with. Labour, in power for 13 years until May, had argued for a slower pace of spending cuts to help Britain's economy get back on track after an 18-month recession. (Reporting by Matt Falloon; Editing by Susan Fenton)