LONDON (Reuters) – The British government’s nominee to run the country’s influential budget watchdog said on Monday his former career at the finance ministry did not mean he would seek to muzzle the body and he would act with independence in the job.
“Poachers sometimes make the best gamekeepers,” Hughes said in a question-and-answer session with lawmakers who are considering whether to approve or throw out his appointment as chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility.
“We know how existing practices work, we know where the bodies are buried and I think we sometimes do the best job of unearthing them.”
Hughes said he had pushed for greater transparency when he worked at the Treasury and had challenged the government more recently as a researcher at the Resolution Foundation think tank.
(Writing by William Schomberg, editing by Andy Bruce)
