POLL: Are changes to national insurance contributions for the self-employed fair?

In a Brussels press conference on Thursday, the Prime Minister promised to listen to concerns raised by Conservative MPs and said there would be no vote until the autumn on the £2 billion hike in National Insurance contributions (NICs) for the self-employed announced in this week's Budget.

Labour claimed the promise amounted to a "partial U-turn" on proposals tabled by Chancellor Philip Hammond on Wednesday.

But Mrs May insisted that Mr Hammond's planned 2% hike in Class 4 NICs for the self-employed was "fair", when considered in the light of the abolition of the separate Class 2 payments as well as improvements to the benefits received by self-employed people.

A review of modern employment practices by RSA chief executive Matthew Taylor, due to report over the summer, will be followed by a Government paper which is expected to include proposals to extend benefits such as parental leave to the self-employed.

Asked whether Mrs May would use the summer to listen to MPs' concerns about the potential impact of the changes on "white van man" traders, her official spokesman said:"The Prime Minister has said that the Chancellor and his ministers will be talking to MPs and businesses over the summer. The Prime Minister talks to MPs all the time."

Pressed on whether the new paper was likely to include concessions to critics of Mr Hammond's proposals, the spokesman replied: "What you are going to get ... is a paper over the summer which spells out the changes to Class 2, the changes to Class 4 and looks at potentially what new rights could be given to people who are self-employed.

"The Matthew Taylor report, which is one of the very first things she commissioned when she got to Number 10, will be published within the next few months.

"This will all be laid out in a package as a whole which everyone can look at. We are bringing forward legislation in the autumn in reference to the National Insurance announcements which were made in the Budget."

One of the Conservative critics of Mr Hammond's proposals, Tonbridge & Malling MP Tom Tugendhat, welcomed Mrs May's readiness to listen to backbench concerns.

"I think the Prime Minister has done exactly the right thing," Mr Tugendhat told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"I'm very pleased that the Prime Minister has said that she's going to look at this over the coming months. The policy has got to reflect the individual risk that entrepreneurs and self-employed people bear ... The policy has got to reflect the reality of modern employment."

Mr Tugendhat was among around 20 Tories to voice concerns about the 2% hike in Class 4 NICs, including Wales Minister Guto Bebb who said the Government should apologise for breaking an election manifesto commitment not to increase National Insurance.

With the scale of Tory anger leaving Mrs May's slender majority of 17 in the Commons looking vulnerable, Labour is hoping to force a U-turn on the key Budget measure.

Mrs May acknowledged on Thursday that the Budget had meant "difficult decisions" but insisted it was vital to close the gap between the amount of tax paid by the self-employed and those in "traditional" employment.

The rise in people in self-employment risked eroding the tax base, leaving public services short of funding, she warned.

And she said: "This is a change that leaves lower-paid self-employed workers better off; it's accompanied by more rights and protections for self-employed workers and it reforms the system of National Insurance to make it simpler, to make if fairer and to make it more progressive."

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said: "The fact the Prime Minister won't fully support her own Chancellor's Budget measure, and has been forced by Labour to row back on it just 24 hours after he delivered his speech in Parliament, shows the level of disarray that exists at the top of Government."