Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said he was right to defend then-Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell from Donald Trump’s attacks and would do so again.

Speaking on Wednesday, Bailey said he and other central bank chiefs were prompted to speak out because the US president had started to take aim at Powell “as a person” rather than the policy of the institution.

“I only commented when I felt it was an attack on his person and the personality of a friend,” Bailey said in an online event on central bank independence organized by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum. “I count Jay as a friend. He’s a man of the utmost integrity. It was the right reaction at that time to say, ‘I’m sorry, we are going to stand by our friend,’ and you know I would do the same again.”Earlier this year, Bailey and other central bank heads including those at the European Central Bank and the Bank of Canada signed a coordinated letter declaring “full solidarity” with Powell after Trump served the Fed with subpoenas threatening a criminal indictment over renovations to its headquarters. The move was widely seen as an attempt to coerce the Fed, with Trump repeatedly complaining that interest rates were too high.

Bailey had previously said he was “very concerned” by Trump’s attacks on Fed officials, warning that any erosion of central bank independence could spill over to the rest of the world.

The governor steered clear of commenting about the current monetary policy debate as BOE officials prepare for their next interest-rate decision in early November. Economists and investors are widely expecting a quarter-point hike to fight the inflation surge triggered by the Middle East conflict.