Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has made a dig at the Chancellor for releasing details of his Budget early.
The Speaker told Boris Johnson "I think I already know most of it" when he referred to the Chancellor’s imminent budget announcement during Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions.
Sir Lindsay made the comments less than half an hour before the Chancellor unveiled his budget, with extensions to the furlough scheme and the £20-a-week increase in universal credit.
The exchange took place as Mr Johnson was criticising Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer for repeatedly asking about the crisis in Yemen.
Mr Johnson told the Commons: “We are doing everything we can to support the people of Yemen - given the constraints that we face.
“We’re getting on with a cautious but irreversible roadmap to freedom which I hope that he will support and very shortly Mr Speaker you will be hearing a budget for recovery.”
Sir Lindsay quipped: “I think I already know most of it.”
In an earlier interview with Sky News, the Speaker slammed Mr Sunak’s pre-Budget PR drive, saying that policies should be announced to MPs first because “tradition matters”.
He said it is “important that people hear it on the floor of the House” first and suggested that approach is something “we’ve got to get back to”.
