You hit the pause button, Prime Minister, now find reverse!

AS A Conservative MP in the North East of England, I know what a long, hard road it has been to spread the message of selfreliance. Years of Labour pumping money into the region made it over-reliant on the State for employment and intervention.

Ten years ago, almost one in three people in this region were public sector employees – the highest proportion outside Northern Ireland. Today, that figure is down to 20 per cent.

But despite reductions to the number of public sector jobs here, unemployment figures have remained low. Why? Because people have taken that leap to being self-employed, becoming reliant on themselves rather than the State for work. There are now more than 6,500 self-employed people in my constituency alone.

The Conservative Party has always sought to help those who put themselves out there, start new businesses and work hard to provide for themselves and their families. We have always encouraged self-starters and believe if you work hard, and do the right thing, you should be rewarded. Who are these selfemployed people? They are hairdressers, taxi drivers, journalists, IT consultants, plumbers and labourers.

For the vast majority, being selfemployed is not a lucrative endeavour. There is no job security, often no guarantee of work or knowledge of when a lean spell might come. The selfemployed do not currently enjoy the benefits enjoyed by employed people, such as paid holiday, paid sick leave or paid maternity or paternity leave. Time off is time spent not earning an income.

The lack of guaranteed income for the self-employed makes it hard for them to obtain credit or secure mortgages. It is a totally different working framework to those who are in employment.

So to talk of parity between the two is to misunderstand that the two are simply not comparable.

Self-employed people are part of the backbone of our economy. They drive growth and innovation. I firmly believe the Conservative Party should continue to encourage them, rather than increase their tax burden.

A Government that wants to see the economy grow and people succeed needs to encourage those who are willing to take the risk by offering a carrot of simpler taxes and less regulation, not higher taxes and more regulation.

The increase in Class 4 National Insurance Contributions announced by the Chancellor in his Budget last week did not just concern me because I believe it is wrong in principle. It is also a clear breach of a promise we made in our manifesto not to increase VAT, income tax or National Insurance.

I am pleased the Prime Minister has stepped in to press the pause button on the planned rise, and to look at it in combination with a report on working practices as well as a Government consultation on introducing statutory maternity and paternity rights for the self-employed.

It would be wrong to contemplate increasing the tax burden on the self-employed without examining how to offer them similar benefits to those enjoyed by the employed.

If we use the tax system to punish entrepreneurship and growth creators, we should not be surprised if they become less willing to take the risks our economy needs them to.