Home » Secret Thatcher-era memo undermines Sunak’s plan to scrap national insurance

Secret Thatcher-era memo undermines Sunak’s plan to scrap national insurance

Former chancellor Nigel Lawson, who PM cites as inspiration, warned merging NICs with income tax would ‘create many losers’

A secret, unpublished memo from Margaret Thatcher’s tax-cutting chancellor Nigel Lawson warned against merging national insurance and income tax because it would “create many losers” including pensioners.

The advice in the memo will be a blow to Rishi Sunak, who has said it is his ambition to scrap the tax on workers. He has called Lawson a “transformational chancellor and an inspiration to me and many others”, and said one of the first things he did as chancellor in Boris Johnson’s government was to hang a portrait of Lawson above his desk.

Continue reading… The Guardian Read More Former chancellor Nigel Lawson, who PM cites as inspiration, warned merging NICs with income tax would ‘create many losers’A secret, unpublished memo from Margaret Thatcher’s tax-cutting chancellor Nigel Lawson warned against merging national insurance and income tax because it would “create many losers” including pensioners.The advice in the memo will be a blow to Rishi Sunak, who has said it is his ambition to scrap the tax on workers. He has called Lawson a “transformational chancellor and an inspiration to me and many others”, and said one of the first things he did as chancellor in Boris Johnson’s government was to hang a portrait of Lawson above his desk. Continue reading…