A row has broken out between the UK's financial watchdog and former Conservative chancellor Jeremy Hunt over a review of Labor's so-called £22bn 'black hole' in public finances claim to have inherited.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is expected to raise several taxes in her budget on Wednesday to cover the announced deficit.
But Hunt says a report to be published the same day by the government's independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) will criticize his party and help make the case for Labour's tax rises.
Richard Hughes, boss of the OBR, defended the decision to publish the report on Budget Day and told Hunt it would not include “ministers' decisions”.
Labor is preparing for its biggest week since its election in July, as Reeves delivers the party's first budget in almost 15 years.
The OBR will publish its assessment of the Chancellor's economic policies and will also publish forecasts of their impact on the UK economy over the next five years.
But it is also set to publish a further report, commissioned earlier this year, into the “adequacy of information” provided to it by the previous Conservative government.
Hunt, a supporter of the OBR, consulted it to give credibility to his own spending plans, but he expressed fury at the watchdog for planning to publish the review of assurances it had provided during his tenure at the Treasury.
Hunt said Friday that the planned release date was a “significant concern” and would be considered a “political intervention.”
“I do not believe that publishing a review critical of the main opposition party on Budget Day is consistent with political impartiality,” he said in a letter.
The former chancellor expressed concern that the timing was designed to argue that the budget tax increases were caused by a shortfall in the spending forecast, which had not been communicated to the OBR at the time.
Last week, Reeves said the £22 billion “hole” in the public finances was one of the reasons for the tax rise and added that the OBR would publish its report on “how this was allowed to occur.” The Treasury sees this as an important subplot of the main budget speech.
Hunt also criticized the OBR for not asking his opinion or allowing him to view the report before it was published.
On Sunday, the OBR responded to the former chancellor, saying the review was into the institutional relationship with the Treasury, not the conduct or decisions of ministers.
He also said that following advice from the Cabinet Office and concerns about market sensitivity, it was not “necessary or appropriate” to provide Hunt with an advanced view.
The OBR works closely with the Treasury, and its judgment on the strength of the chancellors' plans is important to financial investors and to Reeves, who has said he wants to borrow money to invest in major infrastructure projects.
Former Prime Minister Liz Truss and her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng declined the offer of OBR forecasts ahead of their mini-Budget two years ago, causing turmoil in the UK economy.
