Commons Speaker John Bercow today expressed concern after the Evening Standard revealed Budget details.
The Speaker said he would be asking the Chancellor to find out whether it was practice at the Treasury to give “prior briefing” to the media.
The Evening Standard apologised yesterday after an image of the paper’s front page was put on Twitter before the Chancellor stood up.
Making a brief statement in the Commons, Mr Bercow said: “The Evening Standard yesterday published the main points of the Budget before the House was informed of them by the Chancellor.
“I have received formal apologies from the editor and from the political editor of the Evening Standard. They have also apologised separately to the Chairman of Ways and Means (Lindsay Hoyle). Their error was extremely regrettable but I am minded not to take that matter further. “However, the error would not have occurred had the news-paper not been in possession of prior detailed information about the Budget.
“This pre-briefing of Budget proposals is a matter of concern to me and, I judge, to the House as well. I am therefore writing to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to ask him to set out what happened on this occasion and whether this is a practice of the Treasury.”
