Hunt accuses financial watchdog of political bias

Former chancellor Jeremy Hunt has accused the Office for Budget Responsibility OBR) of shielding the Labour Party from scrutiny as it prepares to announce tax hikes.

- TOM WATLING

In a letter to OBR chair Richard Hughes, Mr Hunt criticises the organisation for preparing to release a report timed with his successor Rachel Reeves’s first Budget, which addresses a £22bn financial gap attributed to Tory policies. The report is likely to be critical of the last government.

In the letter, Mr Hunt described the timing of the report alongside the Budget as suggesting “political intervention”.

“I do not believe publishing a review with criticisms of the main opposition party on the day of a Budget is consistent with political impartiality,” he said.

“Nor is doing so without asking for views on its contents from the people with whom political responsibility lay at the time.