An SNP MP has said the Bank of England should be renamed to reflect its status as a UK-wide institution, the Sunday Post reports.

George Kerevan, who represents the East Lothian constituency, said: “The Bank of England is a UK-wide institution with UK-wide concerns and its name, governance and practices must reflect this.”

The idea was raised not long ago by Labour peer Lord Harrison in the wake of the Scottish independence referendum.

Lord Harrison suggested it would be “a wise act and an inexpensive and an inclusive act to extend the title of Britain’s central bank to that of the Bank of England of the United Kingdom”.

Lord Newby replied for the Government in the House of Lords on that occasion, saying that such a move would “represent a break from over 300 years worth of history”.

He also claimed it would come at the cost of “the prestige which it carries as a global brand”.

Murdo Fraser, finance spokesperson for the Scottish Conservatives, dismissed the latest bid to rename the institution as “petty” and “absurd”.

In the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence, the SNP proposed a currency union between Scotland and the rest of the former UK, with the Bank of England continuing to set monetary policy.

The proposal was firmly rejected by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne.