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Chancellor defends National Insurance move
Shadow Chancellor: 'Angry about budget'
UK heading for 15 years of lost pay growth - report
Co-op Bank reports £477m annual loss
Today Programme
BBC Radio 4
So how much trouble could the proposed rise in National Insurance cause the government?
"This looks like something that is shaping up to be a defeat very quickly," says Isabel Hardman, assistant editor at the Spectator.
Today Programme
BBC Radio 4
Chancellor Philip Hammond explains the increase on National Insurance for self-employed
Philip Hammond says the increase in National Insurance contributions for some self-employed people announced in the Budget is down to "challenges" arising from the UK's decision to leave the EU.
The Chancellor argues they have not backtracked on election manifesto promises and says the government is navigating within confines and needs to make sure the country is "match-fit" for Brexit.
Today Programme
BBC Radio 4
Aviva, the second largest insurance group in the UK, reported a 12% increase in full-year operating profit to £3bn, boosted by growth in its fund arm, Aviva Investors, as well as its British, Canadian and Irish units.
Mark Wilson, chief executive of Aviva, said:
"The numbers are really pretty simple and clear cut. We've delivered more profit, more capital, there's more cash and dividends."
Aviva shares are up 6% in morning trading.
BBC Breakfast
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell says a large number of his constituents will be hit by the hike in National Insurance contributions for the self-employed.
He says he was angry about the Budget for a number of reasons.
"A number of people are forced into self-employment who should be directly employed, and as a result of that, basically they are (in) insecure work, they don't know when they are going to get work from one day to the next, they don't get statutory sick pay, they don't get maternity pay, paternity pay, anything like that."
BBC Breakfast
Is the tax hike for self-employed people evidence that the Conservative government is against small business, Chancellor Philip Hammond is asked?
"What we're 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 is not good for them, it is not a healthy thing for the structure of the economy, to be driven by tax advantages and tax differences," he said.
Today Programme
BBC Radio 4
On Brexit he says: "It's clear we can't stay in the customs union and wasting a lot of political capital arguing about that will not be fruitful."
"What we need to do is negotiate the very best customs co-operation arrangement that we can... to ensure that goods moving between Britain and the European Union are able to do so with as little friction at the borders as possible," he said.
"We recognise that there will be no overnight closure of the UK labour market. We need European workers to come and work here, for many years to come, but they will come on a different basis, they will come with our permission."
Today Programme
BBC Radio 4
Mr Hammond says he could have stuck to George Osborne's target of balancing the nation's finances by the end of this parliament but "that would have required us to squeeze the economy extremely hard, that would not have been a sensible thing to do".
"It would be a very poor government that said I'm going to ignore what's happening in the real world... the decision to leave the European Union has changed the game and Britain needs to prepare for the opportunities and challenges that lay ahead."
Kamal Ahmed
Economics editor
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Today Programme
BBC Radio 4
Chancellor Philip Hammond sticks to his defence, that in 2015 the government only legislated to lock part of the National Insurance contributions for the self-employed.
So yesterday's move did not break any promises, as far as he is concerned.
He points out that 60% of the self-employed will see a reduction in their National Insurance contributions after his move.
"We've introduced this measure because we need to raise revenue in this budget in order to fund social care," he says.
"No Conservative likes to raise taxes," Mr Hammond says.
Today Programme
BBC Radio 4
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell says National Insurance rise for self-employed is wrong
The Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, says the rise in National Insurance contributions for the self-employed announced in the Budget is "just wrong".
Mr McDonnell wants Conservative MPs to stand with Labour and tell the Chancellor Philip Hammond to "think again" on this increase.
BBC Breakfast
More from the Chancellor, Philip Hammond.
He says benefits available to the self-employed have "significantly improved" including full access to a state pension.
The changes to self-employed National Insurance contributions "produces more winners than losers" he says, with 60% paying less National Insurance.
BBC Breakfast
The Conservatives pledged not to raise income taxes or National Insurance contributions, but now more than one-and-a-half million self-employed workers face a tax hike.
Why has the government broken this pledge, Chancellor Philip Hammond is asked?
"What we did in 2015 was legislate through parliament for all of these issues around tax and National Insurance, and we explained then to parliament exactly how we interpreted them, how we intended to legislate for them. No-one objected, no-one raised any issues about it... We regard that issue as dealt with... What I did yesterday was address a basic continuing unfairness in the current system."
Today Programme
BBC Radio 4
John McDonnell is the Shadow Chancellor. He insists that raising National Insurance contributions for self-employed, will hit "middle and low-earners" hard.
He says the policy is "wrong" and calls on Conservatives to oppose it too.
"We were expecting a detailed consultation process where we tackled these issues around bogus self-employment and looked at how you could ensure full access to benefits for the self-employed themselves," he tells the Today Programme.
Today Programme
BBC Radio 4
Morrisons has reported an 11% rise in annual profits to £337m.
Andrew Higginson is the chairman of Morrisons.
Price rises due to the weakened pound will be "absolutely minimal" he says.
"No retailer will be wanting to pass on any cost increases, if they can."
He seems relaxed about Tesco's proposed deal to buy Booker.
"We are quietly building our own wholesale business from our own manufacturing base," he says.
Image source, Getty ImagesBT has announced that Jan du Plessis (pictured) will succeed Sir Mike Rake as chairman.
Mr du Plessis has been chairman of mining giant Rio Tinto since 2009 and was previously finance director of Richemont and chairman at British American Tobacco.
Sir Mike Rake said: "I am delighted Jan has been chosen to succeed me as Chairman. Over the past 10 years, BT has made huge progress and we have transformed and expanded the business. Whilst clearly there are continuing challenges, the performance of the company remains on track."
Today Programme
BBC Radio 4
If you are self-employed and earn less that £16,250 you will gain from the combined Budget changes of George Osborne and Philip Hammond, and if you earn more than that, you will lose, says BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins.
There are two political concerns about this. One is for the people who are earning just above that threshold - builders, plasterers, couriers, and cab drivers.
But, there are also self-employed people who are lawyers, accountants - "an awful lot among them who are Tory voters," Ross says.
Today Programme
BBC Radio 4
Some Conservative MP's are very unhappy about the Chancellor raising National Insurance contributions for the self-employed. One of them is Anne-Marie Trevelyan.
"I stood on a platform which said that we [the Conservative Party] would not put up VAT, income tax, or National Insurance contributions, that's what people heard, that's what people supported when they voted for me and voted for the Conservative Party."
"We need need to halt this particular decision now."
The Co-op Bank has reported an annual loss of £477m. That's an improvement on 2015, when it lost £610m.
It blamed the latest loss on low interest rates and costs related to the purchase of Britannia Building Society.
If the Chancellor's goal was a low-key budget, then yesterday was a failure.
Most of the newspapers feature the budget on the front page, and not in a good way.
Most accuse him of breaking a Conservative manifesto pledge, by raising the National Insurance for the self-employed.
"Tories break tax vow", the Daily Telegraph says.
The Times calls it a "tax raid".
The Daily Mail accuses him of "hammering" the self-employed and savers.
Image source, PAThe UK is on course for 15 years of spending cuts and lost pay growth, according to think tank Resolution Foundation.
"The big picture from yesterday’s Budget is that the big squeezes on both the public and family finances have been prolonged well into the 2020s," says Torsten Bell, director of the Resolution Foundation.
"Britain is set for a return to falling real pay later this year, with this decade now set to be the worst for pay growth since the Napoleonic wars."
The think tank says the date for achieving an overall budget surplus has been pushed back until 2025 and average earnings are now only set to return to their pre-crisis level by the middle of the next parliament.