Badenoch: OBR chief forced out for telling truth

The Conservative leader said Rachel Reeves should have taken the fall for “twisting the facts” about the state of the economy in the run-up to the Budget.

Richard Hughes, the OBR chairman, resigned on Monday after the watchdog published details of Ms Reeves’s financial plans before she had a chance to announce them.

Separately, after the Budget, the OBR revealed the Chancellor had not been faced with a massive black hole in the public finances, contrary to Treasury briefings to the media. Ms Reeves raised taxes and used some of the money to scrap the two-child benefit cap.

Responding to an urgent question after Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), James Murray confirmed the Treasury had now launched a leak inquiry into briefings to the media in the weeks before the Budget.

At PMQs on Wednesday, Mrs Badenoch told Sir Keir Starmer: “We now know that the head of the OBR was forced out for telling the truth that the Chancellor did not need to raise taxes on working people. We also know that the Chancellor was briefing the media, twisting the facts, all so she could break her promises and raise taxes.

“If she was a CEO, she would have been fired and she might even have been prosecuted for market abuse. That’s why we’ve written to the Financial Conduct Authority. So will the Prime Minister ensure the Chancellor fully cooperates with any investigation?”

Separately, after the Budget, the OBR revealed the Chancellor had not been faced with a massive black hole in the public finances, contrary to Treasury briefings to the media. Ms Reeves raised taxes and used some of the money to scrap the two-child benefit cap.

Responding to an urgent question after Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), James Murray confirmed the Treasury had now launched a leak inquiry into briefings to the media in the weeks before the Budget.

At PMQs on Wednesday, Mrs Badenoch told Sir Keir Starmer: “We now know that the head of the OBR was forced out for telling the truth that the Chancellor did not need to raise taxes on working people. We also know that the Chancellor was briefing the media, twisting the facts, all so she could break her promises and raise taxes.

“If she was a CEO, she would have been fired and she might even have been prosecuted for market abuse. That’s why we’ve written to the Financial Conduct Authority. So will the Prime Minister ensure the Chancellor fully cooperates with any investigation?”
After the two leaders’ exchange, Sir Mel Stride, the Tory shadow chancellor, asked Ms Reeves to make a statement on Mr Hughes’s resignation.

Attending in place of the Chancellor, Mr Murray paid tribute to Mr Hughes and insisted he had not been forced to resign.

Asked by Dame Meg Hillier, the chairman of the Treasury select committee, whether anyone found to be responsible for leaks would also lose their job, Mr Murray replied: “I will not speculate on the outcome of the leak inquiry.

“But it is underway now with the Chancellor’s support. The Government takes our obligations to this House very seriously and we delivered a Budget last week which delivers on the priorities of the British people.”