Nigel Farage has admitted he is giving “very serious thought” to scrapping the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) should Reform UK win the next General Election.
The Budget watchdog has accumulated so much power it is “effectively dictating” UK policy, Mr Farage told The Telegraph.
“I have questioned the need for it,” the Reform leader said. “The question we have to ask ourselves is ‘Is the OBR serving any useful purpose?’
“We have to discuss whether we would be better off without the OBR.
“I am giving that very serious thought.
“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 established by the 2010 Conservative-led coalition to assume responsibility from the Treasury for the production of economic and fiscal forecasts.
Recently, the body of economists has come under increased scrutiny, particularly following this year’s Budget, when it released the economic forecast 45 minutes early.
Nigel Farage has admitted he is giving “very serious thought” to scrapping the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) should Reform UK win the next General Election.
|
GETTY
An urgent investigation into the leak found the OBR had not shared the information “intentionally” – though the probe concluded by describing the incident as the financial watchdog’s “worst failure” in its history.
Senior OBR officials also expressed concerns about Budget leaks with the Treasury, and information appearing in the press that “wouldn’t normally be out there”.
The OBR said they needed to “set the record straight” regarding the economic forecasts provided to the Chancellor, as misleading narratives had taken hold – such as Chancellor Rachel Reeves exaggerating the size of the “black hole” in the Government’s finances.
The fallout saw Richard Hughes, who described the fiasco as a “regrettable incident”, resign from his post as chairman, leaving the body without one in the months since.
At the time, Mr Farage called it a “mess” – now, he said the focus on the five-year forecast “distorts policy”.
Chair of the OBR, Office For Budget Responsibility, Richard Hughes, (left) resigned following the November 2025 Budget leak
|
GETTY“Chancellors become beholden to it rather than doing their own thinking,” he continued.
“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.”
And while Mr Farage refused to answer whether another body would be put in charge of economic forecasts, if the OBR were to be scrapped, he did say: “The ultimate forecaster is called the bond market, and that is the reality of life.”
Prior to 2010, economic forecasts were made by the Treasury, though this led to accusations of numbers being skewed to suit the political leadership at the time.
Mr Farage is not alone in his calls to end the OBR. Labour MP Graham Stringer also called for the Government to scrap the body last year.
Mr Stringer told GB News: “I think that the OBR should be abolished. It was only put there by George Osborne… the Treasury used to do this.
“Their forecasts were no worse than the OBR’s. It’s just duplicating everything.”