The EU's 28 finance ministers will vote via email on a shortlist of at least five names and is necessary because a consensus cannot be reached, the FT said.

Now, in an update, the FT reports that the UK's government has told the EU it does not approve of the unprecedented vote and that it missed the EU's deadline to put forward candidates.

It reports that the UK wrote to France — which is leading the negotiations — to say it was “premature to rush to a voting procedure, in particular as the [IMF] nomination period only closes on 6 September”.

The names on the shortlist are Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the former Dutch chair of the eurogroup of EU finance ministers, Olli Rehn, Finland’s central bank governor, Nadia Calviño, Spain’s finance minister, and Kristalina Georgieva, the Bulgarian World Bank chief executive.

Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, regarded as interested in the position, told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, that the IMF position was an "extremely important role".