This time last week, Philip Hammond stood in the Chamber and made a joke about how the last Chancellor to proclaim they would deliver the last Spring Budget had been sacked 10 weeks later. Little did he then know that just seven days later he would have to face down angry MPs questioning his future — as he appeared in the House to explain the government’s NICs U-turn.
Flanked by Theresa May and David Gauke, Hammond was met with heckles as he said the government had come to the conclusion that while the national insurance class 4 rise is compatible with the tax lock legislation, it ‘does not meet a wider understanding of the spirit of that commitment’. As a result of this, there will be no rise in national insurance in this Parliament. Hammond said that the government ‘sets great store in the opinion of the British people’ and he hoped this move would show that the government is listening.
In response, John McDonnell said it was ‘shocking and humiliating’ that the Chancellor had been forced into a u-turn.
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