PMQs live: Theresa May bombarded with criticism over 'screeching' Budget U-turn
Just 20 minutes before start of PMQs, Chancellor backtracks on key fiscal policy
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Your support makes all the difference.Theresa May faces her weekly session of questions in the House of Commons this week amid a startling array of developing political stories. Here's the latest.
- May faces bruising questions over goverment u-turn on National Insurance rises
- Government performs humiliating u-turn with 20 minutes to go before PMQs
- Earlier, David Davis admits the government has done no assessment of a 'no deal' Brexit
- New figures show unemployment is down - but Brexit puts 200,000 UK construction jobs at risk
- Polls show high support for Scottish independence after Sturgeon calls for new referendum
- But SNP says it will cancel second vote if May offers a compromise on the EU single market
- With a report due on Tory election expenses, police interview an MP under caution
Please wait a moment for the live blog to load
Prime Minister's Questions this week comes as Theresa May is handed the power to trigger the start of Brexit; as the SNP declare their intention to hold a new referendum on Scottish independence; and as a potentially explosive report is due any day now into Tory expenses in the 2015 election.
Then there's the ongoing fallout from last week's Budget by Philip Hammond, which was describing as exhibiting "rookie errors" by a former Conservative Chancellor.
While it is never easy to predict what Jeremy Corbyn will interrogate Ms May on first, he also has a wealth of social issues to raise - from the crisis in the NHS to the dramatic impacts of Tory cuts to local government budgets.
On the Prime Minister's side, she is likely to highlight new figures which came out at 9.30am on Wednesday morning, showing another dip in unemployment
And she will no doubt hail the fact that the Article 50 bill was passed unchanged by Parliament, giving her the ability to "get on with Brexit" and trigger the two-year process before the end of this month.
Welcome to The Independent's live blog from Prime Minister's Questions, including the latest news from the world of politics.
We start today with the breaking news that the Chancellor is scrapping his plan to raise Class 4 national insurance contributions, as laid out in the Budget.
It comes in a letter to MPs, from Philip Hammond, performing a full u-turn on the plan.
He says a "clear view has emerged among colleagues" against raising national insurance contributions.
The Tories pledged not to raise NICs in their manifesto, and ministers were forced to argue the Budget was compliant because the manifesto pledge only applied to class 1 NICs.
The u-turn is being described as the biggest yet for Theresa May's Government.
Here's Tory backbencher Ed Vaizey seemingly complaining on Twitter about having to defend the Budget - only to see it scrapped just under a week later:
Who chose the timing of Hammond's u-turn letter? By releasing it 20 minutes before Prime Minister's Questions, he leaves Theresa May to take the first wave of attacks.
Tory MP put up first to "welcome" the national insurance u-turn.
May - getting it out of the way early - says Tories "made a commitment not to raise tax" and insists Budget was consistent with those.
She says a number of colleagues have pointed out, however, the trend towards greater self-employment creates a structural issue in the tax system.
May insists the government will act on the matter, and bring forward further proposals, but says she won't bring forward NICs changes in this Parliament.
Corbyn is going in on the NIC hikes. He says the Government is in chaos - to ironic laughs from Conservative benches.
He says if the increase is going to be dropped, May should thank business leaders who pointed out how unfair it was.
The PM says she doesn't think Corbyn listened to her last answer, and says Corbyn should give "lessons on chaos".
Corbyn urges May to apologise for the "chaos" the NICs increase and u-turn have caused.
Corbyn asks what May will do to fill the Budget "black hole" created by the NICs u-turn.
She gives no answer, only criticising Labour for themselves wanting to increase borrowing.
Corbyn doesn't press for an answer. Instead, he asks what will be done to address the "injustice" of employers not paying any national insurance contributions for self-employed workers.
May says the Government has done plenty for self-employed people, and that it is looking at how the system can be improved.
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