Image source, BBC/House of Commons

Just a short while ago, the chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) - Richard Hughes - resigned.

It came after the organisation - which is the UK's budgetary watchdog - published details of the Budget before the chancellor delivered it in the Commons last week

Over the last couple of hours, the OBR has been setting out why - and how - this happened.

Here's a recap:

• In a report released earlier today, the OBR earlier said it was not an intentional leak, or the work of a hostile actor, and revealed the document was accessible online via a "predictable" URL

• It took 33 minutes for the document to be taken down after it was first accessed, it said
• In his resignation letter, Hughes said he took "full responsibility" for the shortcomings identified and wanted the OBR to "quickly move on from this regrettable incident"
• Chief Secretary to the Treasury James Murray later told the Commons the incident was a "very serious breach of highly sensitive information" and a "fundamental breach" of the OBR's responsibility
• He also said it was “extremely concerning” the details of previous budgets may also have been accessed ahead of time, due to the market sensitive information involved
• Tory leader Kemi Badenoch accused Labour of using Hughes as a "human shield", while the Lib Dems said the OBR must learn lessons from the "catastrophic error"

We're ending our live coverage now - there's more on this story from our business colleagues here.

Government and OBR relations had reached a nadir recentlypublished at 18:16 GMT 1 December 2025

18:16 GMT 1 December 2025

Harry Farley
Political correspondent

Relations between the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and the government had reached a bit of a nadir in recent weeks.

That was not just because of the inadvertent early release of the Budget documents, which the Treasury said was "very serious breach of highly sensitive information".

But there were also tensions over the watchdog’s decision to choose this moment to downgrade its longer term assessment of how productive the economy was in the past.

I’ve been asking people in government whether the chancellor had let her views be known to Richard Hughes, and whether that might have been a factor in his resignation.

“It was his decision,” was all one government source would say.

Image source, Reuters

We can now bring you Reform UK leader Nigel Farage's response to Richard Hughes's resignation.

Farage says the OBR didn't "wilfully attempted to mislead the British public", adding that "the wrong person has resigned today - it should have been Rachel Reeves".

“I am now calling on Richard Hughes to release all his correspondence with the chancellor in the run up to the Budget so we can see exactly what she knew and who's really to blame for this mess," he adds in a statement.

Image source, Getty Images

Daisy Cooper - the Treasury spokesperson for the Lib Dems - says Richard Hughes has "rightly" taken responsibility for the early release of the OBR's Budget statement.

"We now need to ensure the OBR learns the lessons from this catastrophic error," she says.

The OBR should be protected from "those who want to undermine independent scrutiny of the government's economic decisions", Cooper adds.

Harry Farley
Political correspondent

It's up to the chancellor, supported by senior MPs, to choose the next chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

The position is held by a civil servant, not a politician.

So, Rachel Reeves must now choose Richard Hughes’ replacement.

Her choice must have the consent of MPs on the Treasury Select Committee.

Harry Farley
Political correspondent

The outgoing chair of the OBR is now not going to appear in front of MPs on the Treasury select committee tomorrow.

Richard Hughes had been expected to answer questions from the senior MPs tomorrow morning, external, to answer questions about the premature release of the Budget documents.

Now, just the two other members of the committee that leads the OBR – the Budget Responsibility Committee – will appear at 10:00 tomorrow.

The chair of the Treasury Select Committee, Dame Meg Hillier, says: “On behalf of the committee, I want to thank Richard Hughes for approaching his work with dedication throughout his time as chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility – often in trying circumstances.

“I commend his decision to take full responsibility for the incident and I wish him well for the future.”

Harry Farley
Political correspondent

Image source, PA Media

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has thanked Richard Hughes for his time leading the OBR, as he resigns over the early publication of details of the Budget.

“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," she says.

“This government is committed to protecting the independence of the OBR and the integrity of our fiscal framework and institutions.”

Here's departing OBR chief Richard Hughes's letter in full.

Image source, OBR

Rachel Clun
Business reporter

Image source, UK Pool

Hughes took up the job during the Covid pandemic in October 2020, before inflation began to rapidly rise in 2021. Speaking to the Observer in December that year he said, external it would be nice to have “some semblance of normality to think about longer-term issues a bit more”.

However the year after that, in September 2022 came the infamous Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng mini-budget, for which the OBR was not asked to produce forecasts.

Hughes’s five-year term was set to end in October this year, but in May, Chancellor Rachel nominated him for a second five-year-term.

Hughes has had a long career in top financial and economic institutions. He was the director of fiscal policy at Treasury between July 2016 and April 2019, and prior to that he was the division chief of the International Monetary Fund’s fiscal affairs department for eight years.

A fluent French speaker, Hughes spent six months advising the French government on its multi-year budget planning before he joined the IMF.

Hughes has a bachelor degree in political science from Harvard and a masters in development economics and international development from Oxford.

Image source, PA Media

We're now hearing from Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who is reacting to the OBR chief's resignation.

In a statement on X, she asks why Chancellor Rachel Reeves hasn't resigned, saying that she's "trying to use the Chair of the OBR as her human shield".

Her accusation comes despite the OBR admitting fault for last week's mistaken economic forecast release.

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

Back to the House of Commons briefly, where Chief Secretary to the Treasury James Murray's speech has been interrupted by news of the OBR chief's resignation.

Referencing this, Murray says: "May I put on record on behalf of the government our thanks to Richard Hughes for his dedication to public service".

• Earlier on, Murray told Parliament that the OBR's mistake had been a "very serious breach of highly sensitive information" and a "fundamental breach" of its responsibilities

More on Office for Budget Responsibility chair Richard Hughes's resignation letter now.

The OBR chief calls the mistake a "technical but serious error".

But, he says the OBR will be able to "regain and restore the confidence and esteem that it has earned through 15 years of rigorous, independent, economic analysis" by implementing the recommendations set out in today's report.

And, Hughes accepts he also needs to "play my part" in helping the OBR move on.

"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," he writes.

The chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), Richard Hughes, has resigned.

In a letter sent to Rachel Reeves and the chair of the Treasury Select Committee, Hughes says he wants to ensure the OBR gets the chance to "quickly move on from this regrettable incident".

We'll have more on this soon.

Image source, House of Commons

Liberal Democrats deputy leader Daisy Cooper asks Murray whether attempts to access the OBR's report on the Budget early might result in criminal or civil sanctions.

She then calls the Budget process a "mess", with "leaks on a level that has never been seen before" and flip-flopping which has created uncertainty for households.

She mentions business rates, saying that they are set to increase for pubs by an average of £12,000 a year, or 76% over the next three years. Why did the government omit to mention this, she asks.

Murray responds to Lib Dems' Daisy Cooper, saying the government will move urgently to take forward recommendations made in the report.

The government takes information security and cyber security incredible serious, he says.

He also addresses her point on business rates - saying that "generous transitional relief" will cap the increase in bills at 15% or less for most small businesses next year.

Image source, House of Commons

Treasury Select Committee chair Meg Hillier says she is "saddened and troubled" by the Labour leaks ahead of last week's Budget.

These are leaks of Budget announcements as opposed to the mistaken, premature release of the OBR's economic forecast.

Hillier asks Murray if he can assure this won't happen again.

He says "proper discussion on how this will be prevented" in the budget process are happening, and the government take its responsibilities to the Commons "very seriously" in relation to the matter.

Murray says there is work being done on improving the "integrity of the budget process".

Image source, House of Commons

Responding to the Shadow Chancellor's statement and question, Murray says his government values the OBR and its independence, which is why it takes last week's mistake "with the utmost seriousness."

He says Stride fails to acknowledge the £16bn productivity downgrade that "was a result of things his government did", such as cuts to public investment and a mishandling of Brexit.

"The need to build headroom was crucial," he adds.

After Stride criticises Rachel Reeves for not being present at this statement, Murray says she is at the Wales Investment Summit.

Image source, House of Commons

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride says the Tories will study the OBR's report in detail, but asks that the government's response does not include "scapegoating" the organisation to distract from what he calls "serious questions surrounding the handling of the Budget".

Stride accuses Labour of "a concerted attempt to paint an inaccurate picture of the public finances" to protect them from a backlash when they increased taxes and welfare spending.

He says that a pre-Budget OBR report actually showed an increase in tax revenues, "not a black hole".

This was because the boost to tax receipts from higher inflation and changes to growth calculations "more than offset" the OBR's downgraded productivity forecast, he says.

"At no point was there a deficit of the scale suggested to the media," he says.

Stride then ends his response by asking Murray why Reeves claimed not to know the size of the OBR's headroom forecast in November, and at what point did the Cabinet know that the forecast showed a surplus.

Murray says the fact that the details of previous budgets may also have been accessed ahead of time is "extremely concerning", due to the market sensitive information involved.

He says the government has been in contact with previous chancellors to discuss previous budgets - and potential previous early access.

Murray confirms that the Treasury Select Committee will be questioning OBR representatives tomorrow at its post-Budget hearing.

"The OBR have rightly conducted their internal investigation as quickly possible and it is right that both the government and the Treasury Select Committee now take time to consider the report and its findings," he adds.

We'll now hear from shadow chancellor Mel Stride.

Image source, House of Commons

Murray assures the Commons that the government is taking the mistaken release seriously in order to ensure a similar episode does not happen.

He says it is likely these issues "were pre-existing", adding that the findings published in the report today are very serious.

He says the effect this premature release had on markets is unknown, and that it is concerning that market participants had access to this information earlier than intended.

Murray then turns to the Office of Budget Responsibility mistakenly releasing documents concerning the Budget on Wednesday.

He says this was a "very serious breach of highly sensitive information" and a "fundamental breach" of the OBR's responsibility. He is met with laughter in the chamber.

Murray reads a section of today's report investigating the release, where the OBR says releasing the document early was its worst failure in its 15-year-long history.

Murray adds that this is a "significant and longstanding issue."