It called the silence surrounding the announcement as 'unsatisfactory' and urged that the position be filled before Christmas. But it said 'political infighting' and 'differing views' between the DTI, Number 10 and the Treasury may have held up the process. 'There has been a lot of interest from the two departments and Number 10 as to who they want to fill the role. They all have differing views in the functionality and role the position should carry. 'There are a lot of pressures building up to this announcement. The DTI would like a high-profile chief executive, while the Treasury would prefer a civil servant type chief executive who is sympathetic to the pressures on the purse and Number 10 would like someone who wouldn't take away the limelight from Tony Blair when there is positive small business news to be announced,' said the FSB. The FSB believes that an announcement for the £100,000-a-year post is crucial for the small business world, following the creation of a ministerial panel to call ministers to account for their departments performance and with issues including the Insolvency Bill, LLPs and e-commerce to be resolved. Front-runners for the post include director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce Chris Humphries and cookery writer Prue Leith. But the FSB believes the appointment may now be a civil service type appointment - with the chairman of the Small Business Council now likely to be the higher profile personality.

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