This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, will use a speech on Wednesday to spell out what the Bank believes will be the financial implications of Britain leaving the European Union.

In a carefully trailed lecture at St Peter’s College in Oxford, Carney is expected to discuss the implications of Brexit for the Bank’s key tasks of controlling inflation and protecting financial stability.

So what does Europe really think about the Brexit debate? Read more

The Guardian revealed earlier this year that Bank officials were secretly working on “Project Bookend”, an assessment of the potential implications if Britain’s voters opt to leave the EU in the referendum due to be held by the end of 2017.

Alonside the governor’s speech on Wednesday afternoon, the Bank plans to publish a detailed report highlighting some of the findings.

Any hints about the Bank’s stance will shake up the highly charged political debate about Britain’s future relationship with Europe, in which both sides are already trading claims and counter-claims about the economic impacts of leaving the EU. Jon Cunliffe, one of Carney’s deputies, will brief journalists about the details of the speech.

Bank of England governors have traditionally steered well clear of politically contentious topics, but Carney has made a series of controversial pronouncements on public policy.

In 2014, he warned Scottish voters about the financial consequences of independence and more recently told UK plc it had to wake up to the urgency of climate change.