Bank's Posen - King crossed the line on fiscal policy

(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.