Richard Hughes, the chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility, has quit after the findings of an urgent inquiry by the watchdog into how it inadvertently published Rachel Reeves’s budget 40 minutes early.

Hughes wrote to the chancellor and Meg Hillier, the Labour chair of the Treasury select committee, on Monday saying he took “full responsibility [for] the shortcomings identified in this report”.

He wrote in the letter: “The OBR plays a vital role in the UK’s fiscal policymaking, and it is critical that the government, parliament, and the public continue to have confidence in the work that it does. The inadvertent early dissemination of our economic and fiscal outlook (EFO) on 26 November was a technical but serious error.”

He added: “I also need to play my part in enabling the o

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