Labour says Hunt’s long-term plan to abolish national insurance amounts to a £46bn unfunded tax cut – UK politics live

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said this would be a bigger tax cut than anything Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng tried

Household incomes are on course to fall for the first time over the course of a parliament despite Jeremy Hunt’s national insurance cuts, the Resolution Foundation thinktank has said in its assessment of the budget. Phillip Inman has the story.

Jeremy Hunt has conceded that the Conservative will not be able to abolish employees’ national insurance, as he has said he would like to do (see 9.28am), any time soon,

That’s a huge job. [National insurance] raises an enormous amount of money. And I don’t think it’s realistic to say that’s going to happen any time soon. But I do want to end the unfairness of a system where the income you get from work is taxed twice through income tax and national insurance.