THE BUDGET watchdog should be abolished, left-wing campaigners said after a parliamentary inquiry into its role was announced today.

The former head of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) Richard Hughes resigned last week over the inadvertent early release of its assessment of the Chancellor’s Budget.

The Commons Treasury select committee probe will look at its performance over its 15-year history and consider potential reforms.

They will have a focus on the accuracy of its forecasting and its impartiality, as well as whether changes should be made to its “processes and methodology” and the quality of its communications, the committee said.

A spokeswoman for Momentum said: “Regardless of the source of the Office of Budget Responsibility leak, it is clear that the OBR is an unaccountable institution set up by George Osborne to hardwire fiscal conservatism into the UK. 

“Its methodologies do not stand up to scrutiny and make it harder for any government to take genuinely strategic decisions about the future of our society. It should either be abolished or radically reformed.”

In November, the TUC said that the unaccountable watchdog risks being a “strait-jacket on growth” and should be urgently reviewed.

Chairwoman of the Treasury committee Dame Meg Hillier said: “The OBR is an important part of the UK’s fiscal framework. But it is often castigated by frustrated economists who feel they should be in charge because they shout the loudest.

“And we need only remember Liz Truss’s mini-Budget to remind ourselves of what happens when the OBR is sidelined.

“This inquiry is not a stick to beat the OBR with.”