OBR boss says he will RESIGN if he loses Chancellor’s confidence over Budget

The head of the UK’s fiscal watchdog said he would resign if a probe into a disastrous pre-Budget leak results in the Chancellor and MPs losing confidence in him.

Richard Hughes, chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility, said he was ‘personally mortified’ after the OBR’s Budget assessment was made public shortly before Rachel Reeves addressed the Commons.

The leak resulted in sharp movements in currency and bond markets and has left Mr Hughes’s position under intense scrutiny.

The OBR launched an investigation which is being assisted by Sir Ciaran Martin, former head of the NCSC and will report by early next week.

Mr Hughes addressed the issue when he spoke at a post-Budget briefing by the Resolution Foundation think-tank.

He said: ‘A link to our EFO document was inadvertently made accessible to the public prior to the conclusion of the chancellor’s statement when it is usually published.

‘It wasn’t published on our website but there was a link that somebody managed to find and that made it accessible and it was then disseminated.

‘As soon as it was discovered we took action to take it down.

‘Today I’ve written to the chancellor and the chair of the treasury select committee to apologise and take full responsibility for what has happened.

‘I’ve initiated an investigation which will be overseen by the oversight board of the OBR.

‘It will report to the treasury and the treasury select committee to whom we are accountable with input from sir ciaran martin who is a former head of the national cyber security council.

‘We will look into how this happened, we will identify actions required to ensure it doesn’t happen again, we’ll implement those recommendations in full.

‘I’m personally mortified by what happened, we take budget security incredibly seriously, which is why an investigation is already under way and will report very swiftly by early next week.

‘Personally, I serve day to day subject to the confidence of the chancellor and the treasury committee.

‘If they both conclude in light of that investigation they no longer have confidence in me then of course I will resign which is what you do when you’re the chair of something called the office for budget responsibility.’

Mr Hughes declined to comment further when asked by the Mail whether it was galling to have been subjected to intense briefing and criticism from Labour sources after the leak – given the unprecedented extent of pre-Budget leaks there had already been from Whitehall.