Rachel Reeves refused to guarantee the future of the head of the OBR watchdog today.
The Chancellor offered only lukewarm support for Richard Hughes amid Treasury anger at the Budget leak and revelations about when she was told there was no hole in the public finances.
Ms Reeves was left wriggling in interviews this morning as she was confronted with details of how she talked up the problems in the government’s books, even after the OBR had advised her they were in fact forecasting a small surplus.
The timetable was spelled out in a letter from the independent body to MPs, published on Friday.
That drew a rare public rebuke from the Treasury, which said it had been assured such information would not ‘usually’ be made public in future.
Rachel Reeves refused to guarantee the future of the head of the OBR watchdog today
The Chancellor offered only lukewarm support for Richard Hughes amid Treasury anger at the Budget leak and revelations about when she was told there was no hole in the public finances
A letter from the OBR to the Treasury Select Committee has been published spelling out the timetable of exactly what forecasts were provided to the Chancellor as she drew up her Budget package
Last week, Mr Hughes said he had been ‘mortified’ by the extraordinary leak that saw Budget documents published before Ms Reeves had started speaking.
He said he would resign if he lost the confidence of the Chancellor and the Commons Treasury Committee.
Asked about the fate of the OBR chief today, Ms Reeves said she would receive a report on the leak tomorrow.
‘Look, there is no one who is a bigger supporter of the office for Budget Responsibility than me,’ she told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.
‘I reappointed Richard Hughes in the summer to strengthen the powers of the OBR. We will get a report tomorrow.
‘The report that looks at what happens about that budget. It was clearly serious. It was clearly a serious breach of protocol but I’ll see that report tomorrow.
‘It was clearly a serious breach of the protocol, but I’ll see that report tomorrow.’
After the OBR letter was published on Friday, a Treasury spokesman said: ‘We are not going to get into the OBR’s processes or speculate on how that relates to the internal decision making in the build up to a Budget but the Chancellor made her choices to cut the cost of living, cut hospital waiting lists and double headroom to cut the cost of our debt.
‘We take Budget security extremely seriously and believe it’s important to preserve a private space for Treasury–OBR policy and forecast discussions, so we welcome the OBR’s confirmation that this will not become usual practice.’
