In an interview with Daily Mirror, he said, “I know it's a debated issue here, whether the government should have entered into an IMF deal and what the future of the IMF deal is.

The High Commissioner made such remarks in the wake of the main parties making various remarks about the IMF programme. They even vowed to renegotiate the programme.

“I wanted to say that as Sri Lanka approaches an election, I'm sure there will be candidates who will say that they don't need to have this deal. It's very difficult. Or they will say that they have a different way out, suggesting that renegotiations are easy,” he said.

He also said, “I think if I was a voter here and I had a politician telling me that they could provide an easy solution to the future without going through with that, I think I would think carefully about whether that was accurate.

The UK is a key member of the IMF. Also, the UK is a member of the Paris Club which coordinates Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring.

DM