School of Politics and International Relations

Professor Philip Cowley, Hammond Accused of Breaking Tory Pledge With Budget Tax Increase

8 March 2017

Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond found himself on the defensive after his budget decision to break a 2015 election pledge and increase a tax on income paid by the self-employed. “It hurts entrepreneurs and it breaks an election promise. He would have struggled to pick something more likely to provoke a Tory rebellion,” said Philip Cowley, professor of politics at QMUL and an expert on parliamentary revolts. “This is a government with a tiny majority. Let’s see if it makes it.”
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