Charter for Budget Responsibility

Debate between Daisy Cooper and Matt Rodda

Wednesday 29th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Daisy Cooper (St Albans) (LD)]

The charter for budget responsibility is at the heart of the OBR’s function, setting the Government’s fiscal rules, as well as the OBR’s broader remit and how it is to perform its duties. It is important to stress just how vital the OBR is for the sound management of our public finances and for the UK’s economic stability.

I am very proud that the OBR was set up during my party’s time in office, and the Liberal Democrats have backed it at every turn since. In our most recent general election manifesto we said that every fiscal event should be accompanied by an OBR report, and we are pleased that this Government are taking the same approach. We also called on the Government at the time to establish the OBR to assess general election manifestos independently.

Unfortunately, commitment to the OBR as an institution cannot be taken for granted, as we have seen over the past few years. We saw Liz Truss’s Conservative Government sideline the independent watchdog at the mini-Budget and cast doubt on its forecasts at every turn. Equally unfortunately, we all witnessed the consequences: soaring interest rates, sky-high mortgage bills and a spike in the cost of servicing our national debt. We Liberal Democrats are crystal clear that we can never have a repeat of that debacle.

[Matt Rodda]

The hon. Lady is making an excellent speech. Will she also reflect on the disastrous impacts on pensions savings, and particularly on people who were drawing their defined contribution pensions at that point in time? Some of my constituents had awful experiences, which they relayed to me.