Jeremy Hunt said abolishing National Insurance entirely will be a “huge job” and it is not going to happen “any time soon” after signalling his intention to scrap the tax at the Budget. 

The Chancellor said this morning it would not be “realistic” to think such a change could be made quickly. 

He used his fiscal address yesterday to confirm another 2p cut to National Insurance but he also criticised the “double taxation” faced by workers and vowed to “end this unfairness”.

Asked when NI could be abolished, Mr Hunt told Times Radio today: “Well, what I said yesterday was that that’s a huge job. It raises an enormous amount of money and I don’t think it is realistic to say that is 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 but the income we get from other sources is only taxed once. 

“The reason is because when you bring down National Insurance it actually brings more people into work. The combined cuts in National Insurance, the 4 per cent cut, the OBR say will bring around 200,000 more people into the workforce, or the equivalent of, which fills more than one in five vacancies in the economy.”

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