OBR chair Richard Hughes resigns over Budget day publishing error

The chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has resigned following the Budget day error which saw a key document published early.
Richard Hughes said in his resignation letter he took "full responsibility" for the issues that were identified in the OBR's investigation into the mistake.
That investigation found the early publication of the OBR's forecasts was the worst failure in the organisation's 15-year history.
The UK's official forecaster confirmed the market-sensitive report was accessed 43 times from 32 different devices in the hour before the chancellor's speech.
In a letter sent to both the chancellor and the chair of the Treasury Select Committee, Dame Meg Hillier, Mr Hughes said he believed the OBR could "quickly regain and restore the confidence and esteem" it had earned by implementing the report's recommendations.
"But I also need to play my part in enabling the organisation that I have loved leading for the past five years to quickly move on from this regrettable incident," he continued.
"I have, therefore, decided it is in the best interest of the OBR for me to resign as its Chair and take full responsibility to the shortcomings identified in the report."
Mr Hughes had been due to face questions from the Treasury Select Committee on Tuesday about the Budget and the OBR's economic forecasts, but Dame Meg confirmed that he would no longer attend.
In response to his resignation, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: "I want to thank Richard Hughes for his public service and for leading the Office for Budget Responsibility over the past five years and for his many years of public service."
But Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch accused the chancellor of "trying to use the chair of the OBR as her human shield".
Paul Johnson, the former director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies and provost at Queen's College, Oxford said he was not surprised Mr Hughes had resigned.
"That was a really bad mistake," he told BBC News, but added that Mr Hughes had been a "very effective and very robust" head of the OBR.
"I think it's a shame for Richard Hughes and a shame for the OBR."
Mr Hughes had only recently started his second five-year term as OBR chairman, after being renominated by the chancellor in May. He first took up the job during the Covid pandemic in October 2020.
Prior to that, he had been director of fiscal policy at the Treasury, and earlier he was the division chief of the International Monetary Fund's fiscal affairs department for eight years.
Following the Budget day leak, Mr Hughes called in a leading cyber-security expert to investigate how the crucial document was put on its website too early.
On Monday the report into the mishap concluded it had "inflicted heavy damage on the OBR's reputation" and had been "seriously disruptive" to the chancellor, but added that it was inadvertent.
The "ultimate responsibility" for the circumstances which meant people could access the report early lay with the OBR's leadership, the report added.
"It is the worst failure in the 15-year history of the OBR," it said.
Monday's report also found that somebody gained early access to the equivalent financial forecasts in March while Reeves was delivering her Spring Statement, though they did not act on the information.