Badenoch accuses Reeves of forcing OBR chief to quit

Rachel Reeves has been accused of forcing the chair of the UK’s Budget watchdog to quit after he revealed that claims she made about the public finances were false.

- DAVID MADDOX

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch led on the accusation about Richard Hughes, the former chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), during Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday just before Ms Reeves was called to answer an urgent question on his resignation.

It came as chief Treasury secretary James Murray confirmed that the department is holding a leak inquiry into the multiple briefings ahead of the Budget, which have been blamed for causing chaos and paralysis in the economy.

Mr Hughes officially quit on Monday over a leak of details of the Budget 40 minutes before it was delivered last week, after an investigation found a long-standing systematic problem.

But prime minister Sir Keir Starmer was forced onto the defensive on the issue in the weekly exchanges at PMQs.

Ms Badenoch said: “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.