Former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has accused the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) of breaching “political impartiality” as it prepares a report on the alleged £22bn blackhole in the public finances.
In a letter to Richard Hughes, chair of the OBR, Hunt said the review, which will be published alongside the Budget, would be difficult to view as anything but “a political intervention”.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has used the supposed existence of the £22bn blackhole as a justification to hike taxes in Wednesday’s Budget.
She has argued that Hunt “covered up” the true state of the public finances during his time in office.
The OBR’s report will investigate whether the government withheld information from the fiscal watchdog while it was preparing its spending plans back in March.
Hunt argued that he should have been engaged for the review and “given the chance to address any criticisms made”.
“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.
But in a reply sent on Sunday, Hughes said it was not appropriate to consult Conservative ministers on the report.
“The findings and recommendations solely concern the institutional relationship between the OBR and Treasury,” he wrote in response.
“It does not disclose advice provided to ministers nor comment on, or refer to, the conduct or
decisions of ministers,” he added.
The £22bn figure has been a focus for intense political debate since Reeves published the results of her internal Treasury audit back in July.
Hunt has repeatedly described the figure as “nonsense”. The largest single item in the blackhole was the public sector pay deals agreed by the government over the summer.
These deals saw pay increase between five and six per cent, costing the Chancellor £9.4bn. But departments had only been given funding for a 2 per cent rise at the last spending review in 2021.