FCA will not immediately investigate chancellor over pre-budget briefings

The UK’s financial regulator has decided not to investigate Rachel Reeves and the Treasury over prebudget briefings immediately but has left the door open for further examination of what the Conservatives claimed amounted to market manipulation.

- Kiran Stacey Kalyeena Makortoff

In a letter addressed to the chair of the Treasury committee of MPs, Meg Hillier, the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Nikhil Rathi, said the regulator had turned down requests by politicians including the shadow chancellor, Mel Stride, to open an inquiry into briefings made before last week’s announcement by the chancellor.

Rathi said the FCA had “not commenced an enforcement investigation” into potential market abuse, but added that the regulator would consider the findings of a Treasury inquiry into pre-budget leaks.

On Wednesday, the Treasury minister James Murray said the department’s permanent secretary, James Bowler, would review “security processes” to inform future events. He said the inquiry had the “full support” of Reeves and the “whole Treasury team”.