The Sun demands Philip Hammond axes his tax raid on the self-employed, as we reveal plight of struggling 2.4million grafters
We call on our army of white van-driving readers to back our demand he scrap a £240 National Insurance rise
THE Sun today demands Philip Hammond axes his hated tax raid on the self-employed.
We call on our army of white van-driving readers to back our demand he scrap a £240 National Insurance rise for 2.4million grafters.
The PM stepped up to help her rocking Chancellor — but seething Tory MPs have already vowed to vote down the move.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith led the charge as MPs slammed Mr Hammond for breaking a key Tory election pledge.
Joining forces to ramp up the pressure, The Sun today calls on readers to display our campaign bumper sticker that reads: “Stop Hammond’s White Van Scam.”
Theresa May was forced to intervene in a bid to save her embattled Chancellor.
She used a press conference at an EU summit in Brussels to pause the plan to increase NICs for the self-employed by 2p in every £1, from nine per cent now to 11 per cent in April 2019.
Legislation to enforce it will now not be introduced until the autumn, she promised, after a key report on self-employed workers’ rights is delivered and acted on.
The Taylor Review is probing how to help Britain’s new army of 4.8million self-employed access employee benefits such as sick and holiday pay and parental rights.
The concession was a key demand of Tory MPs, who threatened to stop the changes ever becoming law.
Mrs May said the Chancellor will “listen to the concerns” of her MPs but insisted the changes — that also slash the tax-free allowance incorporated sole traders enjoy on dividend payments — will make the tax system fairer.
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She argued: “The shift to self- employment is eroding the tax base, it’s making it harder to afford the public services on which ordinary working families depend.”
The Tories’ winning 2015 manifesto pledged not to raise NICs, income tax or VAT.
Wales Minister Guto Bebb risked the sack to openly slam Mr Hammond for breaking the pledge.
He said: “I believe we should apologise. I will apologise to every voter in Wales that read the Conservative manifesto in the 2015 election.”
Ex-PM David Cameron also appeared to turn on his former Cabinet minister Mr Hammond during an Iraq and Afghanistan memorial service yesterday.
He was spotted by a lip-reader saying: “Breaking a manifesto promise is a stupid idea.”
Mr Hammond tried to tough out the furore, arguing the NICs rise helped level the playing field between the self-employed and the 12 per cent rate company employees have to pay.
But he was accused of “weasel words” when he tried to argue the increase was not a clear breach of the election promise.
A law passed in 2015 after the election to enact the triple tax lock made it clear the NICs freeze would apply only to employees, Mr Hammond said.
As the Tory civil war raged, David Cameron’s spin doctor Sir Craig Oliver insisted: “The perception of anybody looking at this is you have broken a pledge.”
Mr Duncan Smith called on Mr Hammond to review the plan, saying: “We have a chance to look at making some adjustments.”
Other Tory MPs began talks with Labour backbenchers to draw up a cross-party amendment to kick out the rise.
One, Stephen McPartland, said: “We need to get a U-turn. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and it looks like we have broken our promises.”
The respected Institute for Fiscal Studies yesterday backed Mr Hammond’s move, dubbing it “a modest but welcome change to shore up the tax base”.
But the think tank also called for “a lot more work and consultation”. Mrs May’s intervention calmed some Tory MPs.
Former justice minister Dominic Raab said: “This is a sensible way to make sure we look at the impact and treat workers fairly.”
The Lib Dems accused Mrs May of just “kicking the can down the road for a few weeks”.
Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: “The Conservatives are still planning to hit self-employed people but they haven’t the courage to say so this side of the local elections.”
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'Why is he fighting the little guy?'
By The Sun cabbie Grant Davis, 53
I INTERVIEWED George Osborne twice in my cab and hated him.
I thought anyone would be better. So when ex-businessman Philip Hammond was named Chancellor I was confident he was the right man.
Now he’s reneged on a promise not to raise taxes and has hiked National Insurance contributions for the self-employed.
So I must find another £200 at a time when it’s harder than ever to make ends meet.
I’ve been a London cabbie for 28 years. I became self- employed as it gave me flexibility to work the hours I wanted.
I believe in the Tory ethos. I didn’t want anyone to support me and my family.
I believed the harder I worked, the better off I’d be. But to put up NI for the self-employed, then claim it was to increase fairness is an insult and injustice.
Mr Hammond would rather fight the little man trying to make a living than take on the big guys who don’t pay tax.
A cabbie gets hit by an extra £200 a year, yet a multi-billion- pound company such as Uber pays £410,000.
That’s totally unfair. I voted for Brexit but now I’m worried. If they’ve backtracked on tax, what else?
What happens to the country after Brexit? This is a time when Britain needs its workers to make the economy strong.
We need entrepreneurs and small firms to create the jobs of the future.
Yet they are being kicked in the face. Where is the incentive to be self-employed? I work ten to 12 hours a day. Because business is so bad I work six days a week.
My priority is to pay my mortgage and pay for my cab so I can support my family.
Paying a pension is a luxury. There’s no sick pay.
Cabbies joke that if you want to save the NHS, make everyone self-employed as they don’t go to doctors or the hospital.
Paying a pension is a luxury. There’s no sick pay
I’ve worked with a bad cold when I should have been in bed. I don’t take holidays. I take my wife and two sons for days out in the cab to Margate.
Looking through brochures in January to choose where to spend summer holidays?
Those days are gone.
Thanks to Mr Hammond, I don’t know when they’ll return.
'Grafters like me will be crucified'
By The Sun white van man Dan Ware, 39
AFTER the furore over Labour MP Emily Thornberry’s tweet about my white van during the General Election I thought the days of politicians sneering at working people were over.
But it seems not. And even worse, this time it’s the Tories — the party I voted for.
I was stunned when the laughing Chancellor singled out the self-employed for tax rises in the Budget on Wednesday.
I have been self-employed for nearly 17 years and I can tell Mr Hammond that he has picked on the wrong target.
There are five million people like me and we are angry at the way we are being treated.
We are the grafters who get out of bed and are on the road while our kids are still asleep to earn for our families.
The Chancellor said we enjoy the same public services as people working for an employer, so we should pay more National Insurance contributions to make the system fairer.
For me that means paying as much as £70 in 2018 and the following year I’ll have to find around £200.
Hammond seems to have conveniently forgotten that White Van Men like me get no sick pay, no holiday pay and a poor pension, if any at all.
It is our choice. But in return we expect to be treated fairly by the Government.
I have had a host of self-employed jobs. Now I’m working as a fuel engineer. If you put diesel into a petrol car or the other way round, I’m the guy who will come and sort it out.
I am on call for 120 hours a week. I drive around 600 miles a week to jobs.
You can get a job at midnight or two in the morning and you have to go. I cope on three or four hours’ sleep a night.
The last holiday I had we took our four-year-old son to Alicante in Spain for a week. Harvey is now 12 years old.
My family just accept this is the life of a White Van Man.
We work insane hours to look after our families without the benefits employed people get.
If the Chancellor does not end this tax rise for the self-employed it will crucify a hell of a lot of people like me.
If you want to stop Hammond’s White Van Scam back The Sun campaign today.