Sunak Minister Questions Fiscal Watchdog, in Echo of Truss Era
- Badenoch says that OBR forecasts were never ‘quite right’
- Ex-minister Rees-Mogg criticized watchdog as markets crashed
Kemi Badenoch
Photographer: Jason Alden/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch questioned the accuracy of economic forecasts produced by the UK’s independent fiscal watchdog, weeks before the government is due to announce a package of tax rises and spending cuts meant to reassure markets about the state of the country’s finances.
Badenoch, who worked in the Treasury for 18 months until September 2021, told Bloomberg Radio on Tuesday she disputes the Office for Budget Responsibility’s view that leaving the European Union will hurt UK trade in the long term, adding that she remembers “pretty much every previous OBR forecast never being quite right.”