Kristalina Georgieva, chief executive of the World Bank, is in the running to take over from Christine Lagarde

Boris Johnson missed a deadline last night to nominate George Osborne as Britain’s candidate in the race to find a European to run the International Monetary Fund.

European governments decided to widen the search for a new IMF managing director after talks reached deadlock and ahead of an unprecedented vote today to decide on a candidate.

However, there was confusion after the British government failed to put forward Mr Osborne in time after European and Whitehall sources said that the former chancellor, who backed Mr Johnson in the Tory leadership race, would be the British nomination. “The Brits had until 8pm to put forward a candidate and they have not,” a source said. “Voting proceeds as planned.”

Mr Osborne, who is now editor of the