Bank of England boss Mark Carney plans to keep Britain in the EU single market long into next decade

BANK of England boss Mark Carney is drawing up secret plans to keep Britain in the EU Single Market long into the next decade.

The Canadian financier wants a transitional deal to slow the process of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU.

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It could see Britain remaining in current trade arrangements until 2022, but would make it impossible to crack down on immigration.

Mr Carney reportedly told fellow bankers that “there needs to be a two to three-year extension to allow Britain to adjust from the old rules under Europe to the new order.”

Last week he hosted two plotting dinners with dozens bankers and bosses to hatch the plan.

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One banker who went to the private dinner told the Sunday Times: “his key word is continuity.”

But Brexit backing Tory Michael Gove warned against “over-complicating” our EU exit.

He told the BBC: “I’m open to the case for a transitional agreement but I’m not convinced we need one.

“Again, there is a tendency to over-complicate this process.”

He added that his “worry” is that “there are some people who can’t get over the fact that the British people have voted to leave the EU and want us to have a transitional arrangement which is as close as possible” to EU membership as a way of avoiding Brexit.

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And he criticised the use of the term “hard Brexit” as it was “designed to make a liberation sound like a punishment”.

News of Mr Carney’s plot came as he was slammed for spending almost £100,000 of taxpayers’ money on the Bank’s annual summer party, just weeks after the Brexit vote.

As the country grappled with the fallout of the referendum, Governor Carney and around 2,500 Bank staff, policymakers and their families partied at its annual summer sports day, at a cost of £99,035 to the public purse.

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The Bank insisted it “carefully budgeted” for the Governors’ Day jolly but details of its party spending come at an already difficult time for the Bank.

Mr Carney has been under fire amid complaints he went too far in warning of the economic dangers of Brexit in order to bolster Remain during the referendum campaign.

He also came under intense pressure to outline his future plans and whether he inteded to jump ship from the bank before Brexit is complete — something he later denied.