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Hello, I'm Sean Curran, and this is yesterday in Parliament from BBC Radio 4.

Now, a group of MPs had hoped to spend this morning cross-examining the head of the Budget

Watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility, about how it accidentally leaked the budget.

But Richard Hughes won't be keeping his date with the Treasury Committee.

He resigned just as a minister was defending the Chancellor in the Commons on Monday the 1st of December.

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury had come to the Commons to praise the Chancellor,

not to bury the OBR.

James Murray stressed how much the government valued the independence of the watchdog

and its role at the heart of economic policymaking.

Then, as he defended Rachel Reeves and updated MPs about last week's

budget mega leak, the minister found himself announcing some breaking news.

I understand events are moving quickly, and I understand from messages past me there has been

an event the chair of the OPR has resigned. It's what I understand from messages passed to me, there has been an event the chair of the OBR has resigned, is what I

understand, from messages passed to me. The head of the watchdog, Richard Hughes, quit after the

OBR, released by accident, the main proposals from the budget, barely an hour before the Chancellor

delivered her statement last Wednesday. May I put on record on behalf of the government, our thanks to Richard Hughes for his

dedication to public service.

Just a little earlier, James Murray had told MPs that a report into the leak had described

the incident as the worst failure in the OBR's 15-year history.

He said this might not have been the first time sensitive information had been published by mistake. And he'd faced questions from

angry Labour MPs like David Pinto Dysynes, who said he'd been shocked by the OBR leak.

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