PHILIP Hammond has been accused of a "scandalous attack on aspiration" after raising National Insurance Contributions for the self-employed, which will leave hundreds of thousands of Scots out of pocket by an average £240 a year.

And the Chancellor was attacked for breaking a commitment in the Tory manifesto, which promised voters that there would be no rise in NICs.

In his first Budget, Mr Hammond gave an upbeat assessment of the UK economy, saying how it "continued to confound the commentators with robust growth" as he promised his Budget would provide a "strong and stable platform" for the negotiations to come with Brussels – even though in an hourlong speech he did not use the word Brexit once.

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But Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn dismissed the set-piece economic statement as "a Budget of utter complacency about the state of our economy".

Stewart Hosie for the SNP branded it "appalling" for continuing with austerity and for failing to set out any measures to address the “economic tsunami” to be unleashed by a hard Brexit.

As expected, the Chancellor told MPs there would be an extra £500 million package for English schools and a £2 billion boost to help local authorities south of the border cope with increasing social care pressures.

He noted, to silence from the Nationalist benches, how this would mean the knock-on consequentials for the Scottish Government would amount to £350m in the coming year, declaring how this “demonstrated once again that we are stronger together in this great United Kingdom”.

David Mundell, the Scottish Secretary, pointed out how, with an extra £800m for Holyrood already announced in the Autumn Statement, the UK Government had “set out an extra £1bn investment in Scotland” and it was now up to Holyrood to use the money wisely.

But Derek Mackay, the Scottish Finance Secretary, while welcoming the Barnett Formula consequentials, stressed Scotland’s budget faced a real-terms cut of 9.2 per cent between 2010/11 and 2019/20.

“No-one should think that this Budget provides an end to austerity from the UK Government; in fact, there is still a further £3.5bn of cuts to come,” he insisted.

However, the main political flashpoint came on NICs.

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The Chancellor told MPs the difference between those contributions from employed and self-employed workers could no longer be justified.

He explained how employed staff on £32,000 a year paid £6,170 in NICs, jointly with their employer, which helped pay for pensions and certain benefits, compared with £2,300 for the self-employed.

Mr Hammond insisted the lower payment was not fair on the 85 per cent of workers who were directly employed and that the change from April 2018 would “reduce the unfairness in the NICs system".

Treasury sources explained how the proposed change to Class 4 NICs would mean almost 2.5 million self-employed people across the UK would lose an average of £240 a year. The change over four years will bring in £2 billion.

Yet the 2015 Tory manifesto states: “We will reward work. A Conservative Government will not increase the rates of VAT, Income Tax or National Insurance in the next Parliament.”

When this was pointed out to a senior Treasury source, she referred to changes in legislation made after the General Election, saying: “Legislation is the right place for this level of detail.” But this legislation referred only to how Class 1 NICs for employees would not rise; it made no mention of Class 4 for the self-employed.

Asked if the Government should apologise to voters for breaking a manifesto promise, she replied: “This Government, full stop, has stuck to its manifesto commitments.”

In Commons exchanges, opposition politicians took ministers to task.

Mr Hosie, the SNP's economics spokesman, described the NICs move as a “scandalous attack on aspiration”.

He said: "The party of aspiration taxing those who are self-employed putting in active, real, hard disincentives to starting businesses, to employing people, to stepping out on one's own. That is a decision which will come back to haunt this Chancellor."

Ian Murray for Scottish Labour claimed the Budget proved once and for all that ordinary working people could not trust the Tories. “They are increasing taxes on those who set up their own businesses and drive our economy while cutting taxes for big business."

Baroness Kramer for the Liberal Democrats noted how the NICs hike was a “tax on builders, taxi drivers and window cleaners; some of Britain's hardest working people”.

Even some Conservatives raised concerns. John Redwood, the former Welsh Secretary, said: “I don't think we should be going out of our way to tax work, growth and enterprise and success."

But there were supporters of the move.

Charlie Elphicke, the Tory MP for Dover, argued there had to be a “level playing field” for the employed and self-employed. “That's something about which I feel quite strongly and the Chancellor was right to bring in measures."

Elsewhere, the Office for Budget Responsibility warned that smaller deficit falls in four year's time, coupled with cost pressures from an ageing population, meant the Chancellor was unlikely to meet his fiscal target of shifting the public finances back into the black "at the earliest possible date in the next Parliament".

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A Treasury source insisted the Government had a “good track record” on reducing the deficit and that a lot could happen between now and the next Parliament.

Meantime in Scotland, Unionists parties seized on downgraded forecasts for oil and gas receipts to argue that the case for Scottish independence had been fundamentally undermined.

Revenue forecasts from the OBR show how income from the North Sea is due by 2021/22 to fall by £2.7bn on forecasts only made in November.

The Government’s independent forecaster projects offshore receipts of about £4.6bn between 2017/18 and 2021/22, down from £7.3bn in its forecast of just four months ago.

For this year, it estimates revenues of £0.9 billion. Ahead of the 2014 independence referendum, the Scottish Government predicted North Sea revenues of up to £7.9bn for 2016/17 and of up to £11.8bn for 2017/18.

Last week, Andrew Wilson, who chairs the SNP's Growth Commission, suggested, in future, oil revenues would not be central to the economic case for independence.

Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour's economy spokeswoman, said the new numbers showed the “SNP's economic case for independence now lies in tatters”.

She added: "Scottish Labour warned time and again during the independence referendum campaign about the SNP's rose-tinted fantasy of an independent Scotland's finances."

Murdo Fraser for the Scottish Conservative said the troubling figures threw the “SNP's deception on oil prior to the independence referendum into stark relief".

But the SNP hit back, saying: "The gleeful celebration of the problems affecting the North Sea oil industry is as predictable as it is pathetic and it speaks volumes that instead of focusing on a Tory Chancellor hell-bent on continued austerity, Labour's first instinct is to attack the SNP.

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"A Tory hard Brexit is by far the biggest threat to Scotland's economy, jobs and livelihoods, and independence must be an option to protect our vital national interests in the face of an intransigent Prime Minister and a Labour party which has run up the white flag and isn't even worthy of the name opposition," added a spokesman.