Meg Hillier
Labour (Co-op) MP and chair of the Treasury Committee.
Dame Meg Hillier led the Treasury Committee's defence of the Office for Budget Responsibility against calls for an overhaul on 23 September 2026, warning that forecasts matter more "when government spending operates on razor-thin margins".
Last refreshed: 7 October 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Hillier says forecasts matter more on "razor-thin margins". How thin is Healey's headroom?
Timeline for Meg Hillier
Hillier's MPs seek 10-year OBR forecast
Is Britain Actually Broke?Background
Dame Meg Hillier is the Labour (Co-op) MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch and has sat in the Commons without a break since 5 May 2005, according to the UK Parliament. She has been a member of the Treasury Committee since September 2024 and chairs it.
In government she served as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Home Office from 2007 to 2010. In opposition she took shadow Home Office and shadow energy and climate change posts in 2010 and 2011.
As chair she leads the Commons scrutiny of HM Treasury. In September 2026 her committee defended the independence of the Office for Budget Responsibility against calls for an overhaul.
Hillier defends the fiscal forecaster
As chair, Hillier led the committee's report of 23 September, which rejected an overhaul of the Office for Budget Responsibility. Her argument was that the fiscal rules, and therefore the OBR forecasts that test them, become more important "when government spending operates on razor-thin margins".
The report Hillier's committee produced asks ministers to consider a ten-year OBR forecast next to the existing five-year one, and asks Parliament to make time to debate the OBR's annual fiscal risks report. Both proposals now sit with a Chancellor preparing the 28 October Budget, and the OBR's chair welcomed the report the day it appeared.
