In his first hearing before parliamentarians since resigning as chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), Richard Hughes (pictured) appeared before the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee.

Unsurprisingly, the first issue for the Lords to address was the extraordinary leak of the Budget by the OBR hours before the chancellor was due to deliver her speech.

Hughes said: ‘I want to start by apologising to parliament, to the chancellor, and the prime minister for the inadvertent early release of the OBR’s economic and fiscal outlook,’ adding ‘it was a technical but serious error’.

‘What happened that morning disrupted the most important event in parliament’s weekly calendar, PMQs, and the most important event in parliament’s annual calendar, the chancellor’s Budget statement. It also had an impact on the financial markets.’

Hughe