"Reform leader claims government finance watchdog is ‘effectively dictating’ policy"
Telegraph: 2nd January 2026: Report on Reform UK leader leaning into the idea of taking up a PopCon proposal
"The Reform leader told The Telegraph that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had reached such a position of influence that it was “effectively dictating” policy.... The body of economists was created by the Conservative-led coalition in 2010 to take over from the Treasury the production of economic and fiscal forecasts...
Mr Farage said: “With the OBR I worry once again that we have a Blairite-style quango effectively dictating to elected politicians what they should or should not do. It seems that in too many areas of our public life the power has moved to judges and quangos and not the government the people choose.”
... [OBR] critics on the Right and the Left are questioning whether the current approach is forcing the focus of economic policy too much on to hitting estimates for half a decade away, rather than the best solutions to current challenges...
...“Chancellors become beholden to it rather than doing their own thinking...”[Farage said]. “Given the economic decline that we’re in, we need a government of radicalism. It is difficult to imagine the OBR is capable of radicalism in any way at all.”
...A decision on whether Reform will formally promise to scrap the OBR is expected to be included in its manifesto for the next general election, which is due in 2029."
In a poll run by the Telegraph, 84% of Telegraph readers who responded to the question "Should the OBR be scrapped?" said "Yes". [see here]