Reform UK to overhaul OBR if it gets into power, Robert Jenrick to say

Robert Jenrick is expected to declare that net zero efforts have become a "distraction" for the Bank of England in his first major outing as Reform UK’s Treasury spokesperson.

He will also say that the budget watchdog has overestimated the benefits of low-skilled migration.

Mr Jenrick will pledge not to abolish the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), instead promising "reform", and will say the Bank would remain independent if he were in No 11.

His comments follow Nigel Farage’s naming of his top team on Tuesday, barely a month after Mr Jenrick left the Conservative front bench as shadow justice secretary.

Former home secretary Suella Braverman, who also joined Reform last month, was made her new party’s education, skills and equalities spokeswoman.

In a City of London pitch, Mr Jenrick will accuse Labour and the Conservatives of “taking more of the British people’s money and spraying it around, with no regard for how hard they’ve worked for it or their priorities”.

He is expected to say the OBR overestimated the benefits of low-skilled migration, adding: “Everything Reform promise will be fully costed.

“And because we’re confident about the approach we will take, we’re happy to have our homework marked.

“The OBR is far from perfect but the impetus for its creation was a desire to instil fiscal discipline, and that is something we wholeheartedly endorse.

“Rather than abolish it, we will reform it.

“We will break up this cosy consensus and ensure it has diversity of opinion.

“And we’ll run competitions for superforecasters to join the body and pay competitive salaries to those who most accurately model the impact of Treasury decisions.”

On the Bank of England, Reform UK will focus on “keeping inflation low”, according to Mr Jenrick.

He will say: “We will strip the Bank of distractions which have been loaded on to it.

“That includes the requirement for the Bank to help the transition to net zero.

“And we will demand that the Bank is a more open institution, and the private sector better represented on the Monetary Policy Committee.”

Mr Jenrick previously served as a Treasury minister during Theresa May’s premiership and was communities secretary under Boris Johnson.

Treasury minister Dan Tomlinson said: “Robert Jenrick is trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes but he can’t hide from his appalling record in government.”

Mr Tomlinson said Mr Farage’s party had “already made billions of pounds in unfunded spending commitments”.

He continued: “Jenrick and his former Tory party smashed family finances and he’d do the same again through Reform.

“While Reform and their Tory defectors have talked down and trashed our economy, this Labour Government has made the fair choices to fix our economy.

“Our action has seen inflation and interest rates falling, the economy growing, and wages rising – putting money back in people’s pockets.”

Mr Jenrick and Ms Braverman joined the Reform UK front bench team alongside Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader and business, trade and energy spokesman, and Zia Yusuf, the home affairs spokesman.