Prime Minister Theresa May has announced that she will delay a vote on the Spring Budget’s proposal to raise taxes on the self-employed until the autumn.

The sudden about turn came only a day after the controversial change was announced by the Conservative government.

The delay in the vote follows a backlash within the Tory party and severe criticism from the Labour opposition, which included demands not to legislate on the issue until the autumn, when, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Phillip Hammond, is due to deliver another budget. According to the Financial Times, more than a dozen Conservative MPs criticised the chancellor’s plan, which would hit 2.5 million self-employed people with an average £240 national insurance increase.

John McDonnell, the Shadow Chancellor said the Labour Party would “oppose this unfair £2 billion tax on self-employed low and middle earners, who are the plumbers, hairdressers and cleaners in our local communities”.

Julia Kermode, Chief Executive of the Freelancer & Contractor Services Association (FCSA), commented on the Government's move to delay the tax hike for the self-employed.

"It was naive of the Government to think they could railroad in another reform to hit the self-employed without being challenged so I welcome the PM's move to pause to reflect, reconsider the potential impact of raising NICs for this group of workers and wait for Matthew Taylor's report into the modern working practices due out in the summer,” Kermode said.

“Hopefully, the Government has realised that its argument that the increase would level the playing field between employees and the self-employed is flawed; self employed workers do not have access to NICs funded statutory benefits like unemployment benefit or sick pay and when it comes to maternity allowance, employees receive at least 57% more than self-employed workers, based on our analysis of a 2012 XpertHR survey,” Kermode said.

"I would like to remind the Government that micro-businesses and self-employment account for around 50% of the increased workforce between 2015 and 2016, which underpins the highest employment figures for over a decade.  I would like to see the Government recognising and rewarding this group of workers not penalising and punishing them with more tax hikes," Kermode said.

However, the delay may well not result in the reprieve the FCSA hopes given the views of Matthew Taylor who is reviewing the new world of work for the UK government. He told the BBC last night that it was "fair" that self-employed people paid more tax.

He went on, "Tax rises are never popular, but as tax rises go, this is pretty fair. It's economically rational and it strengthens the long term resilience of the tax base. So if you are going to raise taxes, it is a pretty good way to do it."

Mr Taylor also told the BBC that it was likely there would be reform of employment laws to change the way companies such as Deliveroo and Uber, which use self-employed workers, operate.