OBR chief quits after Budget leak and row with Reeves over size of fiscal black hole

The chairman offered to step down last week after their fiscal outlook was published prematurely before the Budget.

The document, which revealed the contents of Rachel Reeves’ Budget, was accidentally published shortly before midday on Wednesday, half an hour before the Chancellor announced the measures.

He confirmed his resignation in a letter to the Chancellor and the chair of the Treasury select committee.

"The inadvertent early dissemination of our Economic and fiscal outlook on 26 November was a technical but serious error," he wrote.

Of the report published into the leak, he said: "By implementing the recommendations in this report, I am certain the OBR can quickly regain and restore the confidence and esteem that it has earned through 15 years of rigorous, independent, economic analysis.

"But I also need to play my part in enabling the organisation that I have loved leading for the past five years to quickly move on from this regrettable incident.

"I have, therefore, decided it is in the best interest of the OBR for me to resign as its chair and take full responsibility to the shortcomings identified in the report."

Mr Hughes has served as chairman of the OBR since 2020 and was reappointed to the job for a second five-year term in July this year.

Following the resignation, Rachel Reeves said: "I want to thank Richard Hughes for his public service and for leading the Office for Budget Responsibility over the past five years and for his many years of public service.

"This Government is committed to protecting the independence of the OBR and the integrity of our fiscal framework and institutions."

A review into the leak last Wednesday, which embarrassed the Chancellor, found that it was due to "configuration errors" within their website that meant the document could be viewed by those who knew the correct website URL.

The leak of last week’s Budget was not due to ‘hostile cyber activity, or any malfeasance from within,’ the OBR announced on Monday.

In a published report, the OBR said the leak had been "seriously disruptive to the Chancellor, who had every right to expect that the (forecasts) would not be publicly available until she sat down at the end of her Budget speech."

Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch wrote on X: "Someone has resigned as a result of the budget chaos... but it isn't Rachel Reeves.

"The chancellor is trying to use the chair of the OBR as her human shield. But I will not let her.

"Why is it ALWAYS someone else's fault with Starmer and Reeves?"

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Daisy Cooper said Mr Hughes was "a dedicated public servant" who had 'rightly taken responsibility for a failure on his watch."

Noting Mr Hughes had already "rightly" apologised for the leak, the report said it was "not a case of intentional leakage" or a matter of pressing publish too early.

The OBR said it was caused by two errors linked to the WordPress publishing site it used.

The report into the incident said that, while it knew web addresses for its files follow a pattern, it assumed "the protections provided" by WordPress "would ensure it could not be accessed”.But two configuration errors were the technical causes of the premature access."

The report states: “The cause, which appears to have been pre-existing, was, in essence, configuration errors which reflected systemic issues. 

"These led to a failure to ensure the protections which hide documents from public view immediately before publication were in place."

It also recommended a review of the watchdog's processes for publishing such documents.

"To rebuild trust, the leadership of the OBR must take immediate steps to change completely the publication arrangements for the two important and time-sensitive documents containing the results of its biannual forecasts that it publishes in a normal year, and review arrangements for all other publications," the report said.

"The ultimate responsibility for the circumstances in which this vulnerability occurred and was then exposed rests, over the years, with the leadership of the OBR,” it added.

Mr Hughes said previously: "We take budget security incredibly seriously, which is why this investigation is already under way and will report very swiftly by early next week.

"Personally, I serve day-to-day subject to the confidence of the Chancellor and the Treasury Committee. If they both conclude, in light of that investigation, they no longer have confidence in me then, of course, I will resign, which is what you do when you’re the chair of something called the Office for Budget Responsibility.”