Who knew economic forecasters could get so impassioned? The Office for Budget Responsibility’s chairman Richard Hughes went gung ho in criticising the government at yesterday’s House of Lords economic affairs committee and blamed the Treasury for the OBR’s “work of fiction” forecasts. Not the first time he’s pointed the finger at Sunak and Hunt…

Hughes said the OBR’s forecasts are flawed because they are based on “questionable assumptions” and a lack of information from the government:

“Some people call [the forecasts] a work of fiction, but that is probably being generous when someone has bothered to write a work of fiction and the government hasn’t even bothered to write down what its departmental spending plans are underpinning the plans for public services“.

The forecasting chief wants the margin for error in debt-reducing fiscsal rules widened and warned that Hunt has given himself a “tiny” corridor in which to operate. It’s probably not a good idea to tie your budgets to a forecaster that has misjudged UK public sector net borrowing by £53 billion every year since its formation…