Tory pledge to repeal IR35 has cost Labour 500,000 votes, says PCG

Article appeared on Evening Standard web site.

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A jubilant Professional Contractors Group today hailed a Tory pledge to scrap what the party calls Labour's 'damaging and short-sighted' IR35 legislation.

Andy White, PCG founder-director, said: 'The Tories' pledge to repeal this IR35 stealth tax means that Labour's Paymaster-General, Dawn Primarolo, has just cost her party 500,000 votes at the General Election.'

White says there are about 100,000 IT contractors, most of whom he believes voted Labour last time, who will now switch to the Conservatives, taking with them up to four times as many family and friends.

IT contractors say they are being driven abroad or out of business by IR35, which treats their small businesses as 'disguised employees' liable for PAYE and NIC, thereby preventing them from operating on the same basis as larger, often US-owned IT concerns.

The Tories are going further than hoped by the PCG, which had asked the Government only to follow its own Better Regulation Guide and consult on how many legitimate businesses IR35 is killing.