Lord Myners, a former Labour City minister, has attacked Sir Mervyn King as the "least distinguished" governor of the Bank of England in almost one hundred years.

Speaking in the House of Lords on Wednesday, the peer who held responsibility for the financial services sector in Gordon Brown's government, attacked Sir Mervyn's time in office.

"The current governor is probably the least distinguished since Walter Cunliffe, who served from 1913 to 1918.

"He has politicised the Bank of England and disregarded the outlook for inflation. We are introducing a policy of financial repression.

"When we debate the Financial Services Bill, we need to look very carefully at the additional authority and responsibilities that the Bill proposes to give to the governor."

The former Labour minister hit out at David Cameron and George Osborne's handling of the economy.

"We now have an economic management that has added incompetence to complacency," he said.

"The Treasury team is too posh to comprehend what is going on and is now petulantly blaming others for its own failures.

"We have an economic policy that is devoid of intellectual coherence or economic endorsement-a mixture of assertion, dodgy definitions and flawed calculations."