Class 4 National Insurance Contributions

To echo what my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister said in Question Time, I am rather reluctant...

This announcement bolsters trust in the Government’s other commitments, and removes the perceptio...

In the Budget speech last week, I made very clear that we were seeking to close the gap a little....

I said last week that this decision would come back to haunt the Chancellor, and it has, but litt...

On the last point, we will, of course, consult people widely over the course of the summer as we ...

I thank the Chancellor for listening to the voices of colleagues and deciding to reverse the prop...

Yes, I can assure my hon. Friend that this Government will always be on the side of those who gen...

Order. I remind the House that colleagues who arrived in the Chamber after the start of the state...

This is obviously an acutely embarrassing episode for the Chancellor, but will he not acknowledge...

I find it a bit extraordinary that that should be the hon. Gentleman’s intervention. He, after al...

I commend my right hon. Friend for his statement today and for recognising what colleagues and ot...

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend. We have, absolutely, recognised the view of colleagues on ...

Of 28 measures in this Budget, the Chancellor has had to come in a humiliating fashion to the Hou...

I have to say that that was an extraordinary contribution, because the hon. Lady cannot have it b...

I am sure my right hon. Friend is right to deal with this issue in the round, but I hope he will ...

The straight answer to my right hon. Friend is that only in the la la land that the Labour party ...

Oh, dear me. You just, in a week, reversed a decision—

The right hon. Gentleman says, “Dear me”. I repeat: he does not—[Interruption.]

Order. We cannot have these shouting matches across the Chamber. [Interruption.] It is not for me...

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

The right hon. Gentleman does not believe in fiscal neutrality—that ...

To make up the loss in revenue, might the Chancellor consider bearing down on those employers who...

The right hon. Gentleman is right. As I have said, there is, as the economy changes shape, an inc...

I declare my interest as a self-employed solicitor. I commend the Chancellor on coming to the Hou...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right: it is about the environment being conducive to people startin...

Will the Chancellor confirm when the decision to make this U-turn was made? Is not the truth that...

Clearly, that is the story the hon. Lady would like to believe, but, unfortunately, it is not tru...

There are 7,000 self-employed individuals in St Albans, representing 16% of the economically acti...

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. I have to say that I generally find it much more fruitful listen...

We all noted that the Chancellor brought along the First Lord of the Treasury today for support, ...

I have made a statement today about the Government’s intentions: no national insurance contributi...

I commend the Chancellor for coming to the House today. He is entirely correct to assert that the...

My hon. Friend is right. I did not mention this because it is not something that I particularly w...

I know that the Chancellor of the Exchequer will want an endorsement from me like a hole in the h...

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her comments. It is important to separate the two issues invol...

May I thank my right hon. Friend for his wisdom in being open to changing his mind, which shows t...

I am grateful to my hon. Friend, but what I see on the Opposition Benches these days is very ofte...

This Budget was disappointing and unambitious, and is now mired in this chaos. Is it not now time...

What we need to fund our NHS is a strong economy and a Government who have the political will to ...

I commend the Chancellor for his statement. As somebody who was self-employed for many years, I k...

Angela Knight is the chairman of the Office of Tax Simplification, and we will of course seek its...

May I just confirm the slightly astonishing thing that the Chancellor said a few moments ago—that...

I did say that, but let me be clear: I think that Laura Kuenssberg was the first person after I s...

I certainly welcome this statement because it underlines very strongly the case for fairness and ...

As I said in the Budget speech and previously in the autumn statement, we are seeking to do three...

More than 10,000 people in Ilford North will welcome the Chancellor’s damascene conversion to the...

I have set out our long-term plan. The hon. Gentleman knows the fiscal figures, because they were...

On behalf of the 9,000 self-employed people in St Austell and Newquay, may I thank the Chancellor...

Yes. I can say to the self-employed of St Austell and, indeed, more widely across the UK that thi...

The 130,000 self-employed people in Northern Ireland, who make up a seventh of the workforce, wil...

As the hon. Gentleman will know, this Government have introduced a raft of measures over the year...

On behalf of all the hard-working self-employed people in Wiltshire, I thank the Chancellor for h...

Yes. As we have now cast more widely our review of the differences in how employees and the self-...

Can we just be clear: is the Chancellor saying that he was not aware that he was breaking his own...

Neither. We understand the commitment that we made to have been discharged by the passage through...

I congratulate my right hon. Friend on listening to the self-employed and to representations from...

Yes. It will not be over the next two years, but in one go, with a tax cut of about £130 a year i...

This is of course a welcome U-turn, but if it is right to rethink this decision, is it not also r...

We have already addressed the concerns of women affected by the change in pension age. Of course ...

I very much welcome the Chancellor’s statement. In Wellingborough, we had a parliamentary meeting...

My hon. Friend never misses an opportunity to bring us back to his agenda. I have had suggestions...

The clear impression given by today’s announcement is of a reactive Government who are not in con...

Because those representations were not made before the statement. In fact, as the hon. Gentleman ...

I want to add my congratulations to the Chancellor on his announcement. Self-employment is key to...

Yes. It is precisely growing small businesses that we must seek to encourage. The subset of the s...

May I commend the Chancellor for the bravery of his statement? I ask him to pass on our sincere t...

I have explained to the House what happened and what the view is inside Government about the tax ...

I thank the Chancellor for his change of mind today. I urge him to carry on with some parts of th...

My hon. Friend is right. It is a relatively small group, but about 90,000 self-employed people, m...

Unlike some of my hon. Friends, I can readily understand why the Chancellor resisted reading the ...

I think I have made my position quite clear. I have distinguished between the two issues. On the ...

My constituents, almost a quarter of whom are self-employed, will welcome the decision today, but...

I empathise enormously with the self-employed of my hon. Friend’s constituency. He will know that...

Will the Chancellor give small businesspeople an assurance that the three years he talks about is...

I have made it clear that there will be no increase in national insurance contributions during th...

I declare an interest as someone who was self-employed until a few months ago. [Hon. Members: “He...

Yes. First we will respond to Matthew Taylor’s report, which looks more widely at employment righ...

Just so that I do not have to wait 30 years to read the minutes of the Cabinet meeting, will the ...

I am sorry to disappoint the right hon. Gentleman, but he will have to wait 30 years. I am not ab...

I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his wise and dignified statement today, and thank him for ...

There again, we have a manifesto commitment to spend 0.7% of GDP on overseas aid. That commitment...

This is another right boorach. The last Chancellor who had to make a U-turn lasted only a few wee...

I am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman; I shall add the word “boorach” to my vocabulary.

Yes, the decision was made by myself and the Prime Minister this morning.

I thank my right hon. Friend for reacting so quickly to the representations made to him by collea...

As you would expect, Mr Speaker, we try, if it is at all possible, to ensure that the House is al...

We have already heard that Northern Ireland has some 134,000 self-employed people. We also know t...

Yes; as the hon. Gentleman alluded to, there are specific issues in Northern Ireland, where the p...

Although it might not be palatable to Opposition Members, as somebody who was self-employed for m...

As my hon. Friend will probably know, ideas about merging the tax and national insurance systems ...

Last week, the Chancellor made what at the time was a very funny joke about a Chancellor of the E...

I set out the basis on which we made the difficult decision to proceed with changes to class 4 na...

I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his statement, and warmly thank him for listening to colle...

There is a soft hypothecation around national insurance contributions: 20% of the fund goes to th...

Well, well. They do say a week is a long time in politics and I am sure the Chancellor would agre...

The hon. Lady might also have remarked that £2 billion was the amount we put into social care fun...

Read your own manifesto.

I am listening carefully to the right hon. Gentleman, but I am not hearing anything worth listeni...

I was self-employed for 27 years before I came into this House, and I have campaigned long and ha...

The self-employed benefit from increased personal allowances, taking 3 million people out of tax ...

The Evening Standard delivered a damning verdict on its front page today, “Hammond U-turn on Budg...

I explained how we approached this issue. We have a bigger job to do here. The country is embarki...

I applaud my right hon. Friend on three counts: his ability to understand, listen and act. He und...

As I have said many times today and am very happy to say again, we will always support those who ...

I realise that the Budget has now become a consultation exercise. Will the Chancellor confirm tha...

It is certainly the case that at the time of the last general election the referendum had not tak...

There has been much talk about the manifesto. This is the manifesto that promised to protect the ...

My hon. Friend is exactly right. As I have already said several times today, we will not adopt th...

This farce has come about partly because of the lack of transparency in the estimates and Budget ...

We know that the Scottish National party believes in higher taxes, because everyone earning more ...

I commend the Chancellor for his statement and urge him to take firm action on fake self-employme...

That is the purpose of the report that Matthew Taylor is writing to look at the differences in tr...

The Chancellor now accepts that the shape, pace and burden of the change that he announced were g...

As I have said, we have considered the issue of women affected by the pension age changes and we ...

Away from the Chamber of the House of Commons, out there in the real world, there is an army of s...

I am grateful to my hon. Friend, and I extend my sincere good wishes to all the people of Ketteri...

Although the freelance cultural industries and the self-employed of Batley and Spen are very grat...

I hear what the hon. Lady says, but this is a measure that will affect only people who have a sha...

I welcome the Chancellor’s statement and the fact that he is the first Chancellor to see the budg...

Yes, although I remind my hon. Friend that we have embarked on an efficiency review, seeking to m...

Auto-enrolment has been a great success story for the employed, but there is a major practical ba...

As I have said, we will include looking at auto-enrolment in the broader review that we are going...

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. May I make a germane point of order?

It is quite a proud and ambitious boast of the right hon. Gentleman that his point of order will ...

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I, too, have an extremely germane point of order.

Extremely germane? Well, there is a Dutch auction in relevance taking place here.

On a point of order, Mr Speaker.

I am going to take the hon. Member for Salford and Eccles (Rebecca Long Bailey), who is speaking ...

In response to questions, the Chancellor stated that I had confirmed, with reference to the Natio...

Order. I am sorry, but I cannot have a lengthy dilation. That is not appropriate. If the hon. Lad...

I respectfully request that the Chancellor retracts the comments he made earlier on that very que...

The hon. Lady has made her request. The Chancellor can respond, but he is not procedurally oblige...

Further to that point of order, Let me merely and briefly read the hon. Lady’s words as recorded ...

I cannot instruct Members on which sentence they should read, but I rather suspect that if Member...

rose—

rose—

Two Members are standing, both of whom are distinguished products of the University of St Andrews...

On a point of order, A wise choice, Sir. My point of order, extremely germanely, is about collect...

Far be it from me to have to say this to the right hon. Gentleman, but I think that he has raised...

But not germane. [Laughter.]

I do not wish to adjudicate upon how relevant it is—

Division?

But it has been heard, and I do not wish further time to be taken up by a Division of the House. ...

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. As a slavish supporter of the Government, I am in some difficult...

I hope that the right hon. Gentleman is satisfied that, by a wanton abuse of the point of order p...