OBR: Resignation of Chair

Luke Murphy Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd December 2025 Commons Chamber

[James Murray]

The right hon. Gentleman and I disagree on the role of the OBR. As a Government, we are committed to the OBR’s independence and its vital role as a core part of our political framework. As I mentioned, one of our first acts in this Parliament was to introduce the fiscal lock to ensure that the OBR can never again be sidelined as it was by the previous Government. Regarding the private space between the OBR and the Treasury, the publication of the OBR’s letter, which as I mentioned was agreed to by the Chancellor, was due to the unique nature of this Budget in the context of the OBR’s productivity review. We acknowledged that that would not become a usual practice, due to the importance of preserving a private space for conversations.

[Luke Murphy (Basingstoke) (Lab)]

I echo fellow members of the Treasury Committee in commending Richard Hughes for his work and for taking responsibility for what the OBR itself acknowledged is the worst failure in its 15-year history. The shadow Chancellor failed to mention that Professor Miles stated in his testimony to the Committee yesterday that the Chancellor’s remarks on 4 November were entirely consistent with the forecast set out by the OBR at the time, in which the fiscal picture was not as rosy as the Opposition, bizarrely, now claim it was. Does my right hon. Friend agree?

[James Murray]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to point to some of Professor Miles’s comments yesterday. There has been a lot of discussion in this place about the £4.2 billion headroom identified in the forecast by the OBR on 31 October and what, in our view, that implied about the fiscal situation. Professor Miles said that the

“£4 billion in the pre-measures forecast is not inconsistent with the sentiment that this is a very challenging fiscal position.”

It is because of that fiscal position that we made the choices that we did.