A regional daily landed a notable scoop on a possible interest rate rise yesterday after securing an exclusive interview with the Governor of the Bank of England.

Mark Carney spoke with Northern Echo business editor Andy Richardson during a visit to the North East

During the interview he revealed for the first time that interest rates may rise before next year’s general election.

His comments were followed up by most of the national newspapers yesterday.

Andy had asked the Bank governor whether he was ruling out a rate rise before the election, as most economic commentators had previously assumed.

He replied:  “Absolutely not.  We will set policy as appropriate to meet our core responsibility to meet the 2pc inflation target. We haven’t set timing conditions on when that will be. But we are absolutely clear that it will happen independent of the political cycle.”

However he also hinted that more jobs would need to be created in regions like the North East before rates could rise.

“There is still slack in the labour market, you can see that here and right across the country. We need to use up more of that slack before we raise rates,” he told the paper.

Echo editor Peter Barron was pleased to see his paper credited for the scoop by the national dailies.

He tweeted last night:  “Great to see Northern Echo being credited by so many nationals picking up on the Mark Carney interview.”