Overview
- He told the Lords Economic Affairs Committee he was sorry for the premature budget publication, saying it disrupted the Chancellor’s statement and affected markets, while insisting the OBR has earned public trust.
- He argued the Chancellor’s rolling fiscal rules are among the loosest in UK history and enable a significant structural deficit that weakens fiscal resilience.
- He criticized the short lifespans of successive fiscal rules and the rolling targets’ design, warning that small ‘headroom’ is fragile against an OBR forecast error margin of about £50bn.
- Political reactions have split, with Sir Mel Stride vowing a Conservative government would protect the OBR and Nigel Farage suggesting Reform UK could abolish it.
- He rejected claims a last-minute OBR forecast change led ministers to drop an income tax rise and proposed independent scrutiny of party manifestos to rein in over‑promising.