Hammond’s budget risks the fury of core Tory party voters

THE increase in National Insurance contributions announced in Chancellor Philip Hammond’s first Budget leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

It is not that the decision is necessarily unfair or bad policy. In fact, the Institute of Directors and the Resolution Foundation have made positive noises about its impact.

What is troubling is that any person who took the time to read the Conservative manifesto before the 2015 election – a keenly fought contest – would have come away with the impression that such a move was explicitly ruled out.

On page three there is the clear commitment that “we will not raise VAT, National Insurance contributions or income tax”.

At the top of the page are the words: “We have a plan for every stage of your life.”

The party then led by David Cameron was appealing for the trust of voters. This was a centrepiece pledge.

You would not read this commitment and expect Class 4 contributions paid by the self-employed to go up from 9% to 11% over two years from April 2018.

It does not matter that when other changes to National Insurance are taken into account it will amount to “an average of around 60p a week per self-employed person in this country”.

What is at stake is that a manifesto pledge was made and less than two years after the election it looks to a fairminded citizen as if it has been scrapped.

Farming and business groups are alarmed by the changes. Many of their members might have voted a different way if they knew this was in the offing.

Theresa May and Mr Hammond have replaced Mr Cameron and George Osborne as Prime Minister and Chancellor, respectively. They did not go to the country for a fresh mandate of their own but are in power thanks to the seats they won in that 2015 campaign.

There is chatter about whether the PM should seek a snap election to strengthen her negotiating mandate in the coming Brexit talks. But there is also an argument that she should arrange an election if she wants to depart from other manifesto commitments and pursue her own agenda for change.

The National Insurance pledge was repeated on pages seven, nine and 27 and Tweeted out by Mr Cameron as part of a “five-year tax lock”.

It looks as if that lock has been picked.

It is curious that Mr Hammond should risk the fury of entrepreneurs and the self-employed. Are these voters not the core base of the modern Conservative Party?

In the final Prime Minister’s Questions before the 2015 election Mr Cameron, right, challenged Ed Miliband to “rule out an increase in national insurance contributions”, claiming Labour planned a “jobs tax”. Labour succumbed to pressure and did so that afternoon. Mr Miliband and his former Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls must have looked at Mr Hammond’s announcement yesterday and growled at what seems a brazen display of bare-faced cheek.