The Treasury is being urged to reveal whether it is preparing for Liz Truss’s “emergency budget”, in the growing row over whether the Tory leadership favourite is dodging scrutiny.
The likely next prime minister has signalled she will not ask an independent watchdog to give its verdict on the £30bn-plus package of tax cuts she plans within weeks of taking office.
Mel Stride, the Tory chair of the Commons Treasury Committee, has warned she would be “flying blind” without fresh forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) – which are likely to be highly gloomy about the UK economy.
Now Mr Stride has gone further by writing to both the Treasury and the OBR to argue a new official forecast is badly needed – and to establish whether such work is being carried out.
“OBR forecasts provide transparency and reassurance to the markets on the health of the nation’s finances,” the Rishi Sunak supporter said.
“As a Committee, we expect the Treasury to be supporting and enabling the OBR to publish an independent forecast at the time of any significant fiscal event, especially where, unlike other recent fiscal interventions, this might include significant permanent tax cuts.”
Ms Truss has quietly backtracked on her emergency budget – now preferring to call it a “fiscal event” – but Mr Stride added: “Whether such an event is actually called a budget or not is immaterial.”
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