OBR chief resigns after revelations of damning Reeves budget report – latest

Reporting by Millie Cook, Independent political correspondent.

Ahead of Mr Hughes’ resignation, a Downing Street spokesman declined to say whether the prime minister had confidence in the OBR chief, saying: “Clearly, the findings of this report are extremely serious and will now fully consider their implications.”

The Conservatives have warned the Government to sacrifice the OBR for the Treasury’s management of the budget.

Conservative shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride told the Commons: “Can I be assured immediately that (Treasury Secretary James Murray’s) closing comment, and I quote, ‘we will respond to this matter with the seriousness it deserves’ did not involve sacrificing the OBR to distract from the serious questions around the budget. And number 10?”

Mr Stride also questioned the presence of chancellor Rachel Reeves, saying it was “deeply regrettable” that she did not appear in the House of Commons on Monday.

He said: “The credibility of the chancellor is collapsing, and disrespect to this parliament should be added to the long list of his shortcomings in these areas.”

Mr Murray replied that the Chancellor was at an investment summit in Wales and could not attend.

He added: At the same time, it was not clear from the shadow Chancellor’s statements at the beginning of his speech whether he, like us, values ​​the role of the OBR in the budgeting process or not. We value its independence, we value its integrity, and that is why we take what happened last Wednesday very seriously and are determined to pursue it.

Here is the full resignation letter written by OBR chief Richard Hughes when he resigned following last week’s big data leak.

Dear Chancellor and Miss Meg,

I am writing to you following the publication of the error review report on the release of the economic and financial outlook for November 2025. The OBR plays a vital role in UK financial policy-making and it is vital that the Government, Parliament and the public continue to have confidence in the work it does. The unintended early release of our Economic and Financial Outlook on November 26 was a technical but serious error.

A report submitted by the OBR to the Treasury and the House of Commons Treasury Committee sets out how and why it happened and the next steps the office will take to ensure it never happens again. I am grateful to Baroness Sarah Hogg and Dame Susan Rice for overseeing this report, to Professor Ciaran Martin for providing expert input and to the joint OBR-Treasury team for producing it so swiftly.

By implementing the recommendations of this report, I am confident that the OBR can quickly regain and restore the trust and respect it has earned through 15 years of rigorous, independent and economic analysis.

But I also have to do my part to lead the organization that I have loved for the past five years to move quickly through this unfortunate incident. Therefore, I have decided that it is in the best interests of the OBR to resign as its Chair and accept full responsibility for the shortcomings identified in the report.

I would like to thank my predecessor Robert Chute, my current and past Budget Accountability Committee members David Miles, Tom Joseph, Charlie Bean, and Andy King, Laura Gardiner’s Chief of Staff, and all the OBR staff for being such wonderful colleagues over the past five years. I will follow the OBR’s forward progress with great interest and pride.

Richard Hughes, head of the Office for Budget Responsibility, has resigned to allow the watchdog to “quickly move through the budget disclosure before Rachel Reeves’ speech”.

Chancellor of the Exchequer James Murray has told the Commons that the Government supports a “deeper legal investigation” into the earlier disclosure by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

Mr Murray said: “I can confirm that the Treasury will be contacting the previous chancellor to inform them of developments relating to previous financial events.”

He later added: “The government will work with the National Cyber ​​Security Center to implement the recommendation that a forensic review of other financial events be carried out, although let me note specifically for the House that the report found no evidence of hostile cyber activity.”

In addition, the report said that they could not, in the time available, conduct a more in-depth forensic examination of other recent events in the economic and financial landscape, and we recommend that such action be undertaken immediately with the support of experts.

“We will make sure that the work is done promptly.”

James Murray told MPs he was “extremely concerned” to learn that an error by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) may have seen the early release of earlier forecasts.

Citing the Watchdog investigation, Mr Murray told the Commons: “It is likely that the weaknesses that led to early access to the November 2025 Economic and Financial Outlook (EFO) were already in place.

“Indeed, the March 2025 EFO appears to have been accessed prematurely.”

Treasury Secretary Mr Murray later added: “This sensitive market information is deeply concerning to a small group of market participants.

“That it may have happened in more than one case is even more extreme. We don’t know at this point to what extent the market behavior may have been in this or other cases as a result of the early information available.”

But I want to share more information from the report with the House today – on the morning of the Budget, the first IP address that successfully accessed the EFO had made 32 previous attempts that day, starting at about 5am.

Such a volume of requests suggests that the person trying to access the document had full confidence that the continuance would succeed at some point, which unfortunately makes us wonder if the reason they are trying to access the EFO is because they were successful in a previous financial event.

A Treasury secretary has said the early release of the Budget Responsibility Office’s (EFO) economic and fiscal outlook was a “fundamental breach” of the watchdog’s responsibilities.

James Murray told the Commons: “Last Wednesday, before the Chancellor (Rachel Reeves) started her Budget speech, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) published its entire EFO online.

“Let me be clear, this is a very serious breach of very sensitive information.

This is a fundamental breach of the OBR’s responsibility. This is rude to this House and should never have happened.

US Treasury Secretary James Murray has said the government will work with the National Cyber ​​Security Center to take forward recommendations made in the wake of the OBR breach.

“We will make sure that the work is done immediately.

We will look at the wider questions about systemic risk that the incident uncovered, including the report’s conclusion that the OBR’s information security arrangements should have been regularly reviewed and ensured by OBR management.

This government is committed to the OBR’s independence and its role at the heart of economic and fiscal policy.

US Treasury Secretary James Murray has said the administration is taking the cyber breach that led to the release of budget details last week very seriously.

“As a government, we are taking this matter very seriously to ensure the OBR never allows this to happen again.

The report notes that common and relatively basic protections prevent early access, including random passwords and unused URLs.