By Richard Johnstone | 25 June 2014
MPs will today vote on Labour’s proposal to expand the role of the Office for Budget Responsibility to audit all major parties’ spending pledges ahead of the next election.
Last September, shadow chancellor Ed Balls set out plans for the party’s manifesto pledges to be analysed by the watchdog, which was set up by the coalition in 2010 to provide independent scrutiny of government spending.
Balls said expanding the body’s remit to include examinations of the spending and tax commitments made by the main parties at the next election would help ensure that policies of all the parties are properly costed and funded.
However, the change in the remit of the OBR would require a vote by MPs, he said, which Labour will hold today as part of an Opposition Day debate.
‘People rightly want to know that the sums add up,’ he said.
‘That’s why I want every spending and tax measure in Labour’s manifesto to be independently audited by the Office for Budget Responsibility. And I believe the Tories and LibDems should be willing to subject their manifestos to independent scrutiny too.’
Some Conservative and LibDem MPs had already backed the plans, Balls said ahead of the vote.
[Chancellor] George Osborne used to say he was interested in this idea. But now that the election is approaching he seems to be resisting it.
‘Robert Chote has said cross-party agreement would be needed by the early summer to do this for next year’s manifestos.’
