Hunt says plan to scrap employee national insurance could ‘take more than a decade’

Jeremy Hunt appears before the Treasury committee. He told MPs he could not give a timescale for the plan. Photograph: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA

Jeremy Hunt has admitted his unfunded proposal to scrap employee national insurance could take more than a decade, after conceding it would require a sharp increase in economic growth to avoid making cuts to public services.

With the government under growing pressure to explain how the plan could be afforded, the chancellor told MPs on the Commons Treasury committee: “It won’t happen in one parliament, but it’s a long-term ambition.”