Income tax likely to go up if national insurance scrapped, Hunt suggests

Jeremy Hunt stressed he wanted to ‘end the unfairness’ of the system but that eliminating NI contributions altogether would be a ‘huge thing to do’. Photograph: Steve Taylor/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

Income tax may eventually have to be raised to pay for abolishing national insurance, Jeremy Hunt has suggested the day after delivering the government’s spring budget.

The chancellor spent about £10bn to cut NI by 2p in the budget, and has indicated that the government’s eventual ambition is to scrap the tax entirely.