MPs announce inquiry into work of Office for Budget Responsibility

MPs have launched an inquiry into the role and performance of the Office for Budget Responsibility .

The all-party Commons Treasury committee will spend until the end of next month investigating the independent agency’s forecasting performance and impartiality. The panel will consider whether reforms are needed 15 years after the OBR was set up by George Osborne when he was Tory chancellor.

MPs on the committee are understood to be concerned after a row broke out between the OBR and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves , over budget briefings.

Richard Hughes, the OBR’s then boss, complained to senior Treasury officials in the run-up to the budget about a flurry of leaks he said had spread “misconceptions” about the agency’s forecasts.

He later cast doubt on claims that Reeves dropped