LETTER: Income Tax - Protecting high earners?'

Our MP (March 16), in common with other Tory backbenchers, welcomed Chancellor Philip Hammond's U-turn on the national insurance contributions of the self-employed. '¨He argues that the original budget proposals would have punished those '˜with the entrepreneurial spirit to strike out in business on their own'. The proposal would have meant that those self-employed workers with profits of less than £15,570 a year would actually have paid less in national insurance whilst those with profits in excess of £45,000 would have paid an extra £589. '¨Isn't the truth of the matter that Mr Bingham and his like-minded colleagues are most concerned with protecting the position of those with high earnings to the detriment of the less well-off, including those in the early years of self-employment? Whatever happened to the 'Just About Managing?' But he may have had an additional reason. '¨Despite the fact that we are all now supposed to sink our differences, he may have wanted to embarrass Mr Hammond (a remainer). '¨If so, he suceeded. '¨Whatever the reasons the treasury will have £2billion less to spend - or balance the budget - as a consequence.

Martin Brayne

Whitehough, Chinley

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