It took the government just under a week to announce its dramatic U-turn over National Insurance rates.

How the policy the centrepiece of the Budget unravelled:

1.15, 8 March: Philip Hammond announces increase in National Insurance rates for around 2.5m self-employed people.

1.30: In a chaotic post-Budget briefing, Treasury aides deny the tax hike breached the Tory manifesto promise. Mr Hammonds spokeswoman argues that the policy had been fleshed out in a taxation Bill published two months after the election.

9 March: Newspaper headlines about the policy are universally damning.

Conservative backbench protests mount against the move. By the end of the day, 20 have been openly critical.

A Welsh Office minister, Guto Bebb, says the government should say sorry for the policy.

Theresa May, speaking in Brussels, insists the policy would make the tax system simpler, fairer and more progressive. But she promises to delay it until the autumn following further consultation.

10 March: Footage emerges of David Cameron apparently describing as stupid the decision to break the manifesto promise.

11 March: Ex-Chancellor Norman Lamont mocked by Mr Hammond in his Budget speech attacks the rookie error.

12 March: Sunday newspapers carry lurid accounts of recriminations between Downing Street and the Treasury over the NI decision.

14 March: Business minister Margot James lets slip that the policy is under review, saying the increase had simply been mooted.

Morning, 15 March: Theresa May and Philip Hammond meet in Downing Street and agree to abandon the planned rise.

11.32: Minister Rory Stewart defends the rise on BBC1s Daily Politics.

11.37: U-turn announced in letter from Mr Hammond to Tory MPs.

12.02: At the beginning of Prime Ministers Questions, Theresa May confirms that the planned increases have been scrapped.

Originally posted here:
The anatomy of Philip Hammond's U-turn over National Insurance - iNews