Good riddance to the unfair NIC tax rise. Now what about that £2bn black hole? | John McDonnell
The government's U-turn on the unfair 2bn national insurance hike for the self-employed is a humiliation for chancellor Philip Hammond, who has shredded his reputation after only his first budget - and broke a manifesto promise to do it. Labour opposed the measure from the start: Jeremy Corbyn made our opposition loud and clear in his immediate budget response, and Labour MPs hammered the same message home over the next few days. Opposition came from all sides of the house, and from business organisations like the Federation of Small Businesses, leaving the Tory leadership completely isolated.
The chancellor's climbdown will be a huge relief to all those self-employed workers and businesspeople, earning as little as 8,000 a year, who faced a serious increase in their tax bill at a time when average pay for the self-employed has fallen dramatically - their average earnings are now just 12,480 a year.
This is the third Tory budget in a row that has resulted in a major U-turn
Related: Hammond's NICs U-turn is a political disaster for the government | Larry Elliott
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