Nigel Farage has said he is giving “serious thought” to scrapping the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) if his party wins the next general election and he becomes prime minister.
The Reform UK leader said the budget watchdog leaves chancellors “beholden to it rather than doing their own thinking”, and said it is “effectively dictating to elected politicians”.
But Treasury minister James Murray warned against “fiscal recklessness” and claimed Mr Farage would “hammer the British economy with a Liz Truss plan on steroids”.
Speaking to The Telegraph newspaper, Mr Farage said: “I have questioned the need for it. The question we have to ask ourselves is ‘is the OBR serving any useful purpose?'”
He added: “We have to discuss whether we would be better off without the OBR. I am giving that very serious thought.”
He went on: “With the OBR I worry once again that we have a Blairite-style quango effectively dictating to elected politicians what they should or should not do.
“It seems that in too many areas of our public life the power has moved to judges and quangos and not the government the people choose.”
The OBR was created in 2010 by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, and it is mandated to produce five-year forecasts for the economy and the public finances.
These are published twice yearly, alongside the budget and the spring statement, and factor in any tax and spending decisions announced by the chancellor.
However, the watchdog has come under fire in recent years over the accuracy of its forecast, as well as its perceived excessive influence over politicians’ decision-making.
It also hit the headlines at last year’s budget after its forecasts were accessible on its website before the chancellor had delivered her statement in the Commons, resulting in the resignation of its chairman, Richard Hughes.
There have also been tensions with the Treasury, and OBR officials had raised concerns with the Treasury about budget leaks spreading “misconceptions” about its forecasts.
Mr Farage told The Telegraph that the OBR “distorts policy”, and said: “Chancellors become beholden to it rather than doing their own thinking.
“Given the economic decline that we’re in, we need a government of radicalism. It is difficult to imagine the OBR is capable of radicalism in any way at all.”
Asked who would be responsible for economic forecasts if he were to scrap the watchdog, the Reform UK leader declined to answer.
Prior to the OBR’s creation, forecasts were produced by the Treasury, which led to accusations the numbers were skewed in favour of the government.
Former prime minister Liz Truss declined to get the OBR to analyse her 2022 “mini-budget” ahead of its delivery, which is seen as having contributed to the negative market reaction that led to her resignation.
Chief secretary to the Treasury James Murray says Farage is proposing a “Liz Truss plan on steroids”. Pic: PA
In response to Mr Farage’s comments, chief secretary to the Treasury Mr Murray said: “Not content with taking advice from Liz Truss, Nigel Farage is now willing to go further.
“Working people know the price of fiscal recklessness – many are still paying huge sums more on their mortgages than they would have done before Liz Truss crashed the economy. Yet Farage still called it the best Conservative budget since 1986.
“It’s time Nigel Farage realised that politics isn’t a game. He’d hammer the British economy with a Liz Truss plan on steroids – and it’s working people and British businesses who’d be left to foot a very heavy bill.”
