Following calls from the Council of Mortgage Lenders earlier in the week, Gordon Brown is the latest high profile figure to give public backing to any imminent increases in UK interest rates.

The comments come as something as a surprise given Mr Brown's usual silence with regards to interest rate policy and are a clear indication of his conviction on the issue. He believes that a combination of surging consumer demand, a rampant housing market and a worldwide recovery might lead the bank of England to raise rates sooner rather than later and that any decision they make would receive his full backing.

While avoiding the controversy of a direct call for higher rates, his opinion was thinly veiled: "Looking at the economy as a whole we've got to take into account all factors, not just house prices. You've got to look at consumer demand as a whole, which is certainly rising. World growth, despite all the difficulties is generally strengthening, and in that context the Bank of England, indeed every monetary authority in Europe and America and elsewhere is going to have to make decisions in the next few months.''

However, Brown was non-committal on whether the current level of house prices was too high, saying: "Of course you have got to look at house prices in relation to earnings and that is relatively high but you have also got to look at mortgage costs in relation to earnings and that has been relatively low."