(Bloomberg) -- Paul Johnson is standing down as director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies after more than a decade as one of the most high-profile critics of the budget decisions made by successive UK chancellors.
Johnson will leave the independent budgetary policy analysis house in the summer of 2025 to become provost of Queen’s College at the University of Oxford, the IFS said in a statement on Thursday.
Under Johnson’s watch, the IFS has been a vocal critic of tax and spending decisions by eight different chancellors during a turbulent period for the UK economy. He accused Britain’s major parties of a “conspiracy of silence” over their tax and spending pledges during the election campaign earlier this year.
Ahead of Rachel Reeves’ first budget on Oct. 30, Johnson said the new Labour chancellor had inherited a “difficult legacy” and “implausibly tight” spending plans from her Conservative predecessor, Jeremy Hunt. The IFS has warned that annual taxation may need to rise by £25 billion ($33 billion) if Reeves wants to deliver improvements to public services without breaking her promise to pay for day-to-day spending from tax revenue.
Johnson said in the statement that it was a “bittersweet moment” after starting his career at the IFS in 1988 and becoming its director in 2011. The IFS said that the process for finding his replacement will be announced later this year.
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