Budd: MPs should be given power to sack chair of OBR
PARLIAMENT should be given powers to sack the chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility, outgoing chair Sir Alan Budd said yesterday.
In comments that appeared to clash with George Osborne, Budd said it would be “perfectly reasonable for [the Treasury committee] to conclude that the chair is not fit to retain their role”.
He added that the chancellor should retain a veto over whether or not the chair is dismissed. But in practice it would be very difficult for the OBR chair to continue in the role once MPs had withdrawn their support.
Such an arrangement would hand yet more powers to the influential group of MPs that make up the Treasury committee, which is chaired by Tory MP Andrew Tyrie. Last week, the MPs won the right to interview and potentially veto the chancellor’s choice for OBR chair.
Budd is leaving the OBR after just three months. His last task is to provide advice on what the office should look like in the long term.