Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including reaction to the budget, Philip Hammond and John McDonnell’s morning interviews and the IFS press conference
Hammond’s morning interviews - Summary
McDonnell’s morning interviews - Summary
IFS’s verdict on the budget - Summary
Afternoon summary
5.16pm GMT
I find what’s interesting is the response to yesterday’s statement has been one of anxiety right the way across the political spectrum. And I’m hoping the chancellor is listening.
I’m hoping that both the Labour party and other parties in this House will combine with some Conservatives, who are concerned in that way, and we can force the chancellor to think again.
When you sign on for a contract you commit yourself to participation. And obviously the extent of that level of money will be determined. Mr [Michel] Barnier is the lead negotiator for the European Union and obviously Britain will have a say. But that no more than any other problem will have to be faced, it will have to be dealt with and it will be dealt with.
4.53pm GMT
Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem former deputy prime minister, was in Brussels today for a meeting of the ALDE group, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. He said there were seven EU prime ministers at the meeting and they all thought Brexit would be difficult. In a statement he said:
Brexit was the key preoccupation for the seven Liberal prime ministers around the table.
No-one thought that there would be an easy path to a post-Brexit nirvana of the kind that Theresa May has promised the British people.
4.38pm GMT
My colleague Peter Walker was at the afternoon Number 10 lobby briefing. He is not sure he came out any the wiser.
No sign at all of No 10 backing down on Nat Ins row. Her spokesman says: "This is a manifesto commitment that was met."
He was, of course, asked several times *how* it met the manifesto commitment. Not sure I 100% followed logic of the answer.
PM's spokesman also asked if govt has banned use of "Brexit" as the word polls badly.
Reply: "Brexit, Brexit, Brexit, Brexit, Brexit."
4.31pm GMT
The Lib Dems have said the government should delay the NICs tax rise until the Taylor review into modern employment practices has concluded. Susan Kramer, the party’s Treasury spokeswoman, said:
The budget was a car crash yesterday and the government is reeling. It should listen to calls on our benches and their own and pause this plan. With such a slim majority the government are playing with fire and are demonstrating yet again they are no longer the party of business.
I can only assume they just take for granted the millions of self-employed and think they will vote Tory come what may. I think this OmNICshambles budget will show them that is not the case. Pause this hypocritical tax rise and do it now.
4.03pm GMT
Donald Tusk has been re-elected president of the European council at this afternoon’s summit. An attempt by the Polish government to block his re-election failed.
Donald Tusk has been reelected as European Council president
Thank @CharlesMichel for the news
4.00pm GMT
Enda Kenny, the Irish premier, has told reporters in Brussels that he thinks the UK should have to pay a “leaving bill” to withdraw from the EU. But he would not put a figure on how much it should be.
This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.
Enda Kenny told me UK has to be 'realistic' about Brexit and on our exit bill? He suggested we'd have to pay but wouldn't be drawn on figs
Just asked Irish PM if he's on UK side against £50bn exit bill demand. KEnny told me: "When you sign on for a contract you commit yourself"
3.44pm GMT
The Daily Mail’s political editor Jason Groves thinks the government will have to abandon the NICs increase.
24 hours on from the Budget and Hammond's NI rise is starting to look dead in the water... https://t.co/5bsXn5ppFl
Govt sources saying they'll listen to backbench concerns but firm (at moment) no backing down on NICS rises
3.35pm GMT
Going back to the IFS, it said there were only two tax changes “of any substance” in the budget: the NICs increase, and the cut in the dividend tax allowance. As this chart shows, these two measures are progressive, in that they affect the rich the most.
3.16pm GMT
Theresa May has arrived in Brussels for the EU summit. Normally the prime minister, like other leaders, speaks to journalists on her way into the building. But today she dodged the reporters.
This from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.
PM has arrived at summit without going anywhere near reporters -official reason is they were late, but other leaders still turning up
Here at EU Council in Brussels it looks like Theresa May has been sneaked in the back door, presumably to avoid Qs on National Insurance
2.59pm GMT
A government minister has said his party should apologise for breaking its promise not to raise national insurance. According to PoliticsHome, Guto Bebb, a Wales Office minister, told the Welsh language station BBC Radio Cymru:
I believe we should apologise. I will apologise to every voter in Wales that read the Conservative manifesto in the 2015 election.
2.50pm GMT
Contrary to expectations, the IFS is also saying that this decade has been particularly bad for the richest 1%. It says their earnings have fallen by more than the average.
This is what Paul Johnson, the IFS director, said on this subject in his opening remarks at the briefing.
Overall the highest earners, the top 1%, are having a particularly bad decade. Our calculations suggest that the top 1%, having pulled away from the rest over the 2000s are being reeled back in. The ratio between earnings at the 99th percentile and those at the median hit 5 to 1 in the late 2000s. It is back at 4.6 to 1 now, about where it was in 1999.
And that compression of the earnings distribution looks set to continue. Which will keep earnings inequality down. But it is bad news from the point of view of tax revenues. Such growth as we have had has not been tax rich. And going forward the OBR warns that: “The top end will be disproportionately hit by the UK exiting the EU (due to effects on higher paying sectors including financial services). Changes in the distribution are therefore expected to deliver a small drag on the effective tax rate over the next five years”.
2.17pm GMT
Here is the IFS chart showing what has happened to median real earnings since 2007. This explains why the IFS is saying that by 2022 people will have gone 15 years without a pay rise. (See 1.28pm.) The chart comes from this IFS presentation (pdf).
2.11pm GMT
And here is the IFS chart showing the distributional impact of the changes to NICs for the self-employed. Essentially, the people who gain are in the lowest three deciles (ie, the poorest 30%), but they don’t gain much. People in the top six deciles lose, often by a lot more in cash terms. Those in the fourth decile are unaffected, because what they gain from the abolition of class 2 NICs is matched by what they lose from the class 4 NICs increase. The chart comes from this presentation (pdf) given at the briefing.
2.00pm GMT
Here is the IFS chart showing how self-employed people will be affected by the NICs increase depending on their earnings. It is from this presentation (pdf) given at the briefing.
1.28pm GMT
Here are the key points from Paul Johnson’s opening statement at the IFS post-budget briefing (pdf).
We remain on course to be borrowing about £20bn in 2020 – that’s £30bn more than intended a year ago. That leaves a lot of work to do in the next parliament to get to the planned budget balance. It looks like being, I’m afraid, a third parliament of austerity.
Income and earnings growth over the next few years still look like being weak. On current forecasts average earnings will be no higher in 2022 than they were in 2007. Fifteen years without a pay rise. I’m rather lost for superlatives. This is completely unprecedented.
That’s nine years to grow as much as it would normally grow in one. What the OBR is saying is that despite that truly dismal record all of the productivity – and with it earnings growth – we would normally expect has been lost forever. This remains the big story of the last decade – a decade without growth, a decade without precedent in the UK in modern times.
However brief yesterday’s budget may have been there are plenty of big changes coming in this April. The biggest of them are cuts to benefits – to ESA and to tax credits. These will have much bigger effects on people’s incomes than anything announced yesterday.
Tax credit changes in April will not affect current claimants immediately but will mean big losses in the longer term. The removal of benefit from third and subsequent children will mean that in the long run 600,000 three child families will be an average of £2,500 a year worse off than they would have been, while 300,000 families with four or more children will be £7,000 a year worse off on average. This and the reduction in the “family element” of tax credits will save around £5bn a year in the long run, dwarfing all of yesterday’s announcements combined.
Clearly the most controversial announcement yesterday was the increase in self-employed NI rates. This appears to break a foolish manifesto commitment not to raise any of the major taxes. On the other hand it is a small change taking a small step to correcting a big problem with the current tax system. That problem needs a much more thorough review and strategy to deal with it, as do many other problems in the tax system. If politicians continue to make silly manifesto pledges about not changing taxes and the rest of us resist sensible changes such as this we will end up with the tax system we deserve – inefficient, inequitable, complex and increasingly unable to raise revenue in the face of a changing economy.
1.05pm GMT
The Institute for Fiscal Studies is starting its post-budget briefing.
Here is the text of the opening remarks (pdf) from Paul Johnson, the IFS director.
1.01pm GMT
During Brexit questions in the Commons earlier David Davis, the Brexit secretary, hinted that the government may adopt some form of regional immigration policy after Brexit.
He was responding to Stephen Gethins, the SNP’s Europe spokesman, who asked if the government could give Scotland control over immigration policy. David Davis replied:
The simple truth is that the Scottish government has raised a very important issue on the joint ministerial committee about the question of the immigration needs of Scotland.
And I have reflected those questions to the home secretary, and I would expect that when we come to a UK immigration policy, we will reflect the needs of every part of the United Kingdom.
12.57pm GMT
Gordon Brown is publishing his memoirs this autumn, my colleague Jonathan Freedland reports.
Gordon Brown publishing his memoirs this autumn, once again giving all proceeds to charity. Contrast with fellow ex-chancellor G Osborne
12.52pm GMT
The former Lib Dem pensions minister Steve Webb has an idea as to how Philip Hammond could defuse the NICs tax increase row.
If Philip Hammond wanted to avoid a total U-turn, why not announce that the self-employed can divert their increased NICs into a pension?
12.48pm GMT
At the Number 10 lobby briefing a spokesman for the prime minister reiterated the chancellor’s argument that the NICs increase was aimed at equalising the tax liability between employees and the self-employed; and pointed to legislation introduced after the general election, in 2015 that implemented its manifesto tax pledges — but didn’t mention class 4 NICs. He said:
There’s been a lot written about this this morning. The chancellor’s addressed this widely this morning. The government was clear in the legislation that was brought in that it covered class 1 national insurance, which covers 85% of workers. There were no amendments as that bill was passed; no concerns were raised at the time.
Self-employed workers now have access to the full state pension; that makes them £1,800 a year better off; so having equalised the state pension, it was right that the contributions that go towards that are equalised as well.
12.44pm GMT
According to Paul Goodman, the ConservativeHome editor and a former Conservative MP, the Treasury did not properly check what the 2015 manifesto said about national insurance before announcing its NICs increase.
Told Treasury/No Ten didn't adequately check NIC plan against Tory Manifesto or what Ministers said in run-up to last election.
12.30pm GMT
The Conservative MP Stephen McPartland was also on the Daily Politics. He was much more blunt than Raab about wanting a U-turn over NICs. He told the programme:
I was very surprised [when the NICs cut was announced]. I think the whole party was very surprise, the parliamentary party. We sat there in complete and utter silence listening to that part of the announcement. I personally think Philip [Hammond] is a very good chancellor, he’s a very grown-up chancellor, but I think on this issue we need to get a U-turn and we need one quickly.
12.24pm GMT
The Conservative MP Dominic Raab told the Daily Politics a few minutes ago that he did not like the NICs increase much. He suggested it should be reviewed. He said, because there would have to be a separate bill implementing this (see 10.43am), the government should use that as an opportunity to “look at this in the round”.
Tory MP Dominic Raab admits he is "not keen" on what he describes as the "thorny" issue of NI changes pic.twitter.com/eGSQ5OQM7h
12.20pm GMT
An Ipsos MORI poll for STV suggests that support for Scottish independence has risen to 50%. Welcoming the figures, Derek Mackay, the SNP’s business convenor in the Scottish parliament, said:
It is no surprise that more and more people in Scotland are supporting independence – we are being driven ever closer towards an economically catastrophic hard Brexit by a right-wing Tory government who think they can do what they want to Scotland and get away with it.
Striking that "complete" (i.e. hard) support for Union (38%) is still higher than that for independence (28%): https://t.co/6uc0fj4L11
12.13pm GMT
Sion Simon, the Labour candidate for mayor of the West Midlands, is hoping that the NICs increase will help him defeat the Conservative candidate, Andy Street, in this year’s election. He has just released an open letter to Street challenging him to state his opposition to the increase.
11.53am GMT
Here is the Evening Standard’s Joe Murphy making an important point about Number 10’s refusal to rule out a review of the NICs increase.
No 10 won't rule out a retreat. That has repercussions. Why would any Tory MP now waste his/her powder defending NICs rise? https://t.co/faze2zhcXU
11.50am GMT
There are a now a majority of Northern Ireland Assembly members who are in favour of legalising gay marriage in the region, an alliance in favour of marital equality claimed today.
“A decisive majority of new MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly) to support marriage equality”, said Clare Moore from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions at a press conference in Belfast today organised by the Love Equality coalition.
All of the people of Northern Ireland must be served by the incoming government – that includes the LGBT community.
Before any new executive is formed, there must be a firm commitment to deliver equal marriage legislation. Without that, we know it will be another five years of LGBT people being treated as second-class citizens of Northern Ireland.
11.39am GMT
At the lobby briefing Number 10 also refused to rule out a review of the NICs increase.
PM's spox defends NICs rise; but asked repeatedly if it will be reviewed, declines opportunity to say "no". Says again it's about fairness.
11.35am GMT
My colleague Heather Stewart has been at the Number 10 lobby briefing. Downing Street is defending Philip Hammond over the NICs increase.
PM's spox at lobby briefing repeatedly insists NICs change was about "fairness". "The PM and the chancellor discussed the budget at length".
11.06am GMT
Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative party leader and the former work and pensions secretary, has become the most senior Tory to call for a rethink on the National Insurance Contributions (NICs) increase.
Speaking on Sky’s All Out Politics just now, he said that while he welcomed many aspects of the budget, he was concerned about the NICs increase and the cut in the dividend tax allowance, which will lead to people who set up their own companies paying more tax. Both measures hit “people who choose an enterprise process”, he said. He said he would like them to be reviewed at the next budget, in the autumn.
I would like for this period to have a chance to reflect on that, with this report coming in [the Taylor report on employment practices], to think about how this lands and whether or not you want to look at adjustments, at whether £16,000 is the right level to be at - that’s below average earnings - and whether there should be adjustments.
I would like to see that kept, the ball in play, because it doesn’t land until next year, so there is plenty of scope to look how this actually affects them and to listen to business representatives etc.
I think there is always a problem if you make an absolute pledge at the time of an election and then you subsequently you don’t [keep it]. We all saw what happened to President Bush senior, “read my lips”, so some of us were slightly concerned at the time about making pledges that lock you in.
My sense of the problem here is that the Treasury is still way too pessimistic about the future and isn’t looking at the opportunities.
10.43am GMT
The Labour MP Chris Leslie, a former shadow chancellor, says the government will need a separate bill to introduce the NICs increase.
Commons Library confirm for me: "Government will have to introduce separate primary legislation" (to introduce any National Insurance rise)
spanner in works from @ChrisLeslieMP -NICs can't be part of normal Budget Bill-so has to be separate legislation-easier to defeat
10.38am GMT
Philip Hammond, the chancellor, was giving his morning interviews this morning from Dudley, where he is launching the “Midlands Engine” strategy. He has tweeted about his visit.
Very good to visit Dudley College today alongside the launch of the govt's Midlands Engine Strategy. Read it here https://t.co/2fBqT9i08t pic.twitter.com/51oaahA9zm
10.33am GMT
And here are the main lines from John McDonnell’s morning interviews.
I’m hoping that we will be able to persuade the chancellor to back off from this. Certainly the Labour party will oppose this. I think other parties will as well. We may be able to persuade enough Conservative MPs to ask the chancellor now to think again.
This is just going to hit people - middle and low earners in particular - at a time when consumer spending is dipping. These small traders, sole traders, the self-employed, are usually at the front line when consumer spending dips and they are the ones who suffer the most. It’s the wrong policy and it’s certainly the wrong timing.
There’s got to be an element of fairness about our taxation system. [Hammond] cannot cut the taxes to the rich and the corporations and increase the taxes on the lower-paid.
[Hammond] trailed £2bn and then when he announced it’s over three years, well it isn’t a sticking plaster even. It means we are still in crisis.
Yesterday was not the day - when you are inflicting suffering on people by raising National Insurance, you are not addressing the NHS crisis, you are not tackling the problems we have in social care. It was not a day for jokes like that.
It was more stand-up than it was serious economics.
10.19am GMT
Here are the main points from Philip Hammond’s morning interviews.
We said something during the course of the election. When we legislated for those measures we explained very clearly in parliament what we were doing. There was a broad commitment to lock taxes so there would be no tax increases and that is what we have done.
Britain’s circumstances have moved on. We are now facing the challenge of leaving the European Union, of building a global Britain to exploit the opportunities in the future that this country can enjoy, and we need to invest to do that. I’ve had to ask the self-employed to pay a little bit more National Insurance in order to make a fair contribution for the services that they receive from government.
Yes. This is a fair measure, it is a modest measure. Half of the money raised will come from people in the top 20% of income earners. Nobody earning less than £16,250 will pay any more national insurance contributions. Sixty per cent of self-employed people will see a reduction in their national insurance contributions. This is a fair and appropriate measure.
We’ve introduced this measure because we need to raise revenue in this Budget in order to fund social care. We have to pay for these things somehow. This is the difficult challenge.
No Conservative likes to raise taxes and, of course, I’m always prepared to listen to backbenchers, to talk to our backbenchers, but we have made a decision to make the national insurance system a little bit fairer.
What we are dealing with here is a perverse incentive in our tax and National Insurance system which is driving people who are essentially employees to turn themselves into self-employed workers instead.
That’s not good for them and it’s not a healthy thing for the structure of the economy to be driven by tax advantages and tax differences. People should have choices about the way they work and the form they use to set up a business, but those choices should be driven by the needs of their business and the needs of the economy, not by artificial tax incentives.
It’s clear that we can’t stay in the customs union and wasting a lot of political capital arguing about that will not be fruitful.
Not at all. The key circumstance that has changed in respect of the self-employed is that they now have access to the full state pension on the same basis as employees.
My team. We sat round the table, some civil servants, some special advisers, myself, on Tuesday evening. We said let’s try and liven it up a bit, let’s see if there are any little bits of humour we can inject into it.
9.40am GMT
Towards the end of the Today programme Nick Robinson mispronounced the chancellor’s nickname and called him “spreadshit Phil”. It now has its own hashtag.
Robinson seems to be laughing off his error.
I'm very very worried about your hearing. I clearly said SpreadSHEET Phil ...didn't I? https://t.co/vOk0JkuLw6
9.15am GMT
Here is my colleague Peter Walker’s story about Philip Hammond’s morning interviews.
Related: Hammond rejects charge that budget broke Tory manifesto promise
9.14am GMT
The Resolution Foundation, a thinktank focusing on living standards, has published its 40-page analysis of the budget (pdf) this morning.
Here’s an extract.
While the chancellor inherited most of these benefit changes from his predecessor, he did announce a 2 percentage point increase in the Class 4 national insurance paid by the self-employed to coincide with the abolition of flat rate class 2 national insurance. This is a welcome and progressive change that will mean the bottom 54 per cent of self-employed earners pay less national insurance, or none at all. Those earning over £16,250 will pay more, with anyone earning over £50,000 paying a little over £600 more tax each year. At a household level these national insurance changes are highly progressive, with the majority of revenue raised coming from the top ten per cent of households.
These changes should however be part of a wider reform of self-employed taxation and an increase in the support the self-employed receive, including with the likes of maternity pay and pension saving.
9.05am GMT
This is what the papers are saying about the budget on their front pages.
The only one splash headline that is actually positive about the budget is in the Daily Express.
THE SUN FRONT PAGE: Spite Van Man #tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/xURck80wJa
DAILY MAIL FRONT PAGE: No laughing matter #tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/8fucbTrt9e
Thursday's METRO: Hammond hits white van man #tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/Dqp8GwHLlK
DAILY MIRROR FRONT PAGE: What's so funny, Prime Minister? #tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/9ElhSKYtbP
DAILY TELEGRAPH: Tories break tax vow #tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/8xNiMlg9sr
THE TIMES FRONT PAGE: Hammond's £2bn tax raid #tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/yR9ZzneU7a
THE GUARDIAN FRONT PAGE: Hammond falls into tax trap #tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/YmCoNQpu3r
Just published: front page of the Financial Times, London Budget edition, Thursday 9 Marchhttps://t.co/ZF2c79wINa pic.twitter.com/G3lBlx8Z4v
THE i PAPER: Tax raid on the self employed to fund care #tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/031HgB6BBz
DAILY EXPRESS FRONT PAGE: Budget for a smooth EU exit #tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/6d1TaqkewP
THE SCOTSMAN: Hammond hits millions with tax rise as he braces for Brexit #tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/6IcxCpvGeW
DAILY STAR FRONT PAGE: Rob the Builder! #tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/PksBjcoyoH
8.56am GMT
On the Today programme the Conservative MP Anne-Marie Trevelyan said that she would try to reverse Philip Hammond’s decision to increase NICs. She floated the idea of tabling an amendment to the finance bill that would overturn it and she told the programme:
We need to halt this particular decision now. I think we need to put this on hold so we can have a proper review and think in a holistic way.
8.46am GMT
This is what political journalists and commentators are saying about Philip Hammond’s Today programme interview.
I can’t remember a chancellor’s main post-budged interview getting panned so comprehensively. By comparison, the pasty tax row was relatively trivial. The only comparison that does come to mind is Gordon Brown trying to argue that people would not lose out from the abolition of the 10p rate of tax, which wasn’t true, but that row did not erupt until about a year after the budget in which it was announced.
Hammond's argument seems to be weird blend of "when the facts change" and "we haven't broken any vow"
"There was a broad commitment to lock taxes," Hammond says.
"Broad commitment" is my new "you shouldn't have believed me".
If Hammond wants insight into how voters react when you break manifesto pledges you should never have made, he should ask the Lib Dems.
When Hammond said a "small number" of people will be paying more NI he means 2.5 million people.
No chancellor can rule out future tax changes, says Hammond, even though his own party did precisely that in their manifesto.
Hammond's - fair - argument Chancellors can't rule out future tax rises slightly undermined by repeatedly citing law ruling out tax rises
Listening to Hammond, we're going to need a new dictionary definition for "safe pair of hands".
Holding a referendum "was the single most important manifesto commitment we made" says Hammond. Certainly more important than not raising NI
Hammond trying to argue two things at same time:
1) We haven't broken our NI #Ge2015 manifesto vow
2) Facts have changed
Bold..#r4today
Terrific questioning by @bbcnickrobinson to Hammond - is he really saying voters should read Hansard and Bills to know what manifesto means?
This is insane from Hammond and May. The manifesto said no increase in National Insurance. That's it. It was a cast iron pledge.
Hammond: "It's a basic question of fairness". No, it's a basic question of trust. Can people trust commitments given by their politicians.
Hammond: "I'm always prepared to talk and listen to our backbenchers", re #StriversTax. First whiff of a climb down? #BBCR4today
"We've introduced this measure because we need to raise revenue for social care." Hammond makes direct link about #StriversTax #BBCR4today
"It is clear we can't stay in the customs union." @PHammondMP That seems a little stronger than previously #Brexit @BBCr4today
8.27am GMT
Q: It sounds like you have given up fighting for the best outcome for business.
Not at all, says Hammond.
8.24am GMT
Q: Why did you barely mention Brexit in your budget speech?
Hammond says in the autumn statement he set out his approach to preparing the UK for Brexit. He did not feel the need to set that all out again.
8.22am GMT
Q: In 2015 you said you would run a surplus. Your figures show that you will not be able to do that in this parliament.
Hammond says circumstances have changed. You have to deal with the world as it is.
8.19am GMT
Q: Would you put NICs up again for the self-employed?
Hammond says he has got the system into a better place.
8.18am GMT
Hammond says he faces extremely challenging circumstances.
Q: You could use that as a reason for admitting you have not kept your promise?
8.15am GMT
Philip Hammond is being interviewed by Nick Robinson on the Today programme now.
Hammond says the government legislated to implement their “tax lock” manifesto commitment. The legislation made it clear that the promise covered class 1 NICs.
8.10am GMT
It is the day after the budget and, as is usual, the chancellor is out giving interviews. With Conservative MPs, and, perhaps just as importantly, the Tory press, furious about the increase in national insurance contributions (NICs), Philip Hammond has a tough job.
On ITV earlier this is how he defended his decision to break a Conservative manifesto promise.
Britain’s circumstances have moved on.
We are now facing the challenge of leaving the European Union, of building a global Britain to exploit the opportunities in the future that this country can enjoy, and we need to invest to do that.
Related: Budget 2017: manifesto row clouds chancellor's attempt at low-key package
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