DITCHED plans to hike National Insurance tax for self-employed workers will not be revisited by the UK Government, Theresa May's most senior minister has made clear.
Damian Green said MPs had made known their opposition to the proposals from the spring Budget, after which Chancellor Philip Hammond was forced into a humiliating U-turn under pressure from Tory backbenchers and business groups.
Mr Hammond has said he would fully fund the cost of reversing the rise - which would have raised £2 billion over four years - in the autumn Budget.
It comes as the Government prepares to publish an eagerly awaited review by former RSA chief executive Matthew Taylor of the so-called "gig economy", in which many workers are treated as self-employed, and how it impacts on employment rights.
Mr Green suggested the Government would bring forward policies in response to the report, due tomorrow, but stressed that previous plans to increase Class 4 National Insurance Contributions of self-employed workers would not be among them.
"Actually that's not in Matthew Taylor's report; he deliberately doesn't make tax recommendations," explained Mr Green, stressing: "The House of Commons has already spoken on that so we won't be revisiting that."
The secretary of state suggested Mr Matthew Taylor's report would acknowledge the Government had "done very well because of our flexible labour market to reduce unemployment to historically low levels; 40-year low on unemployment". Mr Green suggested Mr Taylor wanted to combine this recprd with a better quality of work, particularly for those working in the gig economy.
"And that is a sensible thing to say and we will be taking that up and working on the details of how best to put that into practice," he added.
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