However, Sir Lindsay told MPs: “The premature disclosure of the contents of the Budget has always been regarded as a supreme discourtesy to the House; indeed, I still regard it as such.
“I am very, very disappointed that the Chancellor expects the House to wait nearly a full week to hear a repeat of these announcements in the Budget statement on Wednesday.”
He added: “It is totally unacceptable to go around the world telling everybody rather than these members… they deserve to be treated better.”
Sir Lindsay was regularly forced to upbraid Conservative ministers for briefing out policies before they were announced in the House of Commons.
“Isn’t it funny that when it was the previous party, it was the opposite side that was complaining to me. Get your acts together, all sides, treat members with respect,” he said.
Sir Lindsay said: “Honourable members may be wondering how they’ll get a seat on Wednesday [for the Budget] – to be quite honest, the way it’s going you won’t need to, we’ll all have heard it. It’s not acceptable, I don’t want it to continue and I want to treat this House with the respect it deserves.”
Asked about the Speaker’s criticism, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “I can point you to previous precedent of when the government has made pre-Budget announcements. That’s entirely routine.
“Obviously, we will continue to work with Parliament to ensure that these measures are also announced to Parliament in the usual way.”
He added: “The Chancellor will provide full details on Wednesday, and then there’ll be ample time for parliamentarians to scrutinise and debate those measures.”