Why are New Labour wonks directing Tory policy?

Theresa May’s announcement that the vote on raising National Insurance contributions for the self-employed will be delayed until after the publication of the Taylor Report in Modern Employment Practises in the autumn is presumably meant to reassure us that the government is taking seriously the many objections which have been levied against the policy in the 48 hours since it was announced by the Chancellor. On the other hand it might merely concentrate minds on a question which few have yet asked: just why does Theresa May have Tony Blair’s former chief policy wonk seeming to direct Conservative policy on employment?

The Taylor review, set up by the Prime Minister last November, is often described as ‘independent’. Yet Matthew Taylor is not independent at all. He was on Tony Blair’s Downing Street staff. Before that he was a Labour member of Warwickshire County Council. He stood as a Labour candidate in the 1992 general election.