Jeremy Hunt admits his plan to end national insurance ‘won’t happen any time soon’

Published

1 year ago

March 7, 2024

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Jeremy Hunt has outlined his desire to abolish “unfair” national insurance tax – but admitted it “won’t happen any time soon”.

The chancellor described national insurance as a “tax on work” and said it he believed it was “unfair that we tax work twice” when other forms of income are only taxed once.

Mr Hunt used his budget yesterday to slash national insurance by 2p – rather than cutting income tax as some Tory MPs had demanded.

He also indicated plans to completely scrap national insurance contributions – a move Labour has branded “reckless”.

Speaking to Sky News from Liverpool this morning, Mr Hunt said: “We said we want to end that unfairness over time, it’s something we will only do when it’s possible to bring down taxes without increasing borrowing while also prioritising public services.

Politics latest: Backlash over ‘reckless’ plan to scrap national insurance

“If we are going to succeed as a country, we need to make work pay.”

Labour has demanded the chancellor reveal how much his plan to scrap national insurance would cost, after its own estimates suggested the move could cost £46bn a year – equivalent to £230bn over the course of a five-year parliament.

The party has argued such a move could end up being more costly than the £45bn package of unfunded tax cuts announced in by Liz Truss in her mini-budget which unleashed economic chaos and upended her premiership.

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Asked how he would pay for ending national insurance, Mr Hunt said: “We are not saying this is going to happen any time soon” and suggested income tax and national insurance could also be merged.

According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, the independent public finances forecaster, income tax brought in £251bn in 2022-23, while national insurance brought in £177bn.

Merging the two could see income tax increase to bring in the extra money national insurance currently raises.

This could have a knock impact in a number of areas – including for pensioners, who do not pay national insurance but do pay income tax.

Mr Hunt told Kay Burley on Breakfast the government had done an “enormous amount for pensioners” and had “really prioritised pensioners” following criticism for his decision to choose national insurance cuts rather than income tax cuts.

He pointed to the fact the government introduced the triple lock, whereby the state pension must rise by either average earnings, inflation or 2.5% every April – whichever figure is the highest.

“In the end, the way that we can keep increasing the state pension is by growing the economy and that’s why the measures I took yesterday are smart tax cuts that are going to help grow the economy,” he said.

Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said the government was “giving with one hand but taking actually double in the other”.

“If you take into account the tax cuts and the tax rises on working families, at the end of the forecast, the average family will be paying £870 more in tax – that is despite the cut in national insurance yesterday,” she said.

Ms Reeves said that Labour would support the cut to national insurance but would not give any spending commitments on either that tax or income tax if her party wins the next election.

Politics

Nasdaq files for 21Shares Sui ETF, kicking off SEC review

Published

3 hours ago

May 28, 2025

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Nasdaq files for 21Shares Sui ETF, kicking off SEC review

Nasdaq has filed for crypto asset manager 21Shares to list a spot Sui exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the US, initiating the Securities and Exchange Commission’s review process.

The stock market’s May 23 19b-4 filing, which asks the SEC to list the 21Shares SUI ETF, follows 21Shares’ April 30 submission of its S-1 registration statement to the SEC, which asked the regulator to approve trading of the proposed fund.

Both regulatory filings are needed for the Sui (SUI) tracking fund to gi live, with the 19b-4 filing kicking off the SEC’s review process. The agency must decide whether to accept, reject or delay the application within 45 days and it can delay its decision multiple times, for a maximum review period of 240 days.

The SEC must decide on 21Shares’ application by Jan. 18, 2026, at the latest.

21Shares proposed BitGo and Coinbase Custody as the custodians to hold SUI on behalf of the trust, however, the filing did not include details on a management fee or ticker.

Canary Capital is the only other asset manager that has submitted 19b-4 and S-1 filings to list a spot Sui ETF, filing the forms on April 8.

21Shares said in its 19b-4 filing that the SUI token powers the Sui network and serves four main purposes: it can be staked to earn rewards, used to pay gas fees, function as a liquid asset for Sui applications and serve as a governance token.

The Sui ecosystem is largely focused on decentralized applications and has been dubbed a potential Solana killer.

SUI is the 13th-largest cryptocurrency, but its $12.3 billion market cap remains a fraction of Solana (SOL)’s $92 billion market cap, according to CoinGecko.

21Shares aims to add to SUI offerings

21Shares already lists a Sui exchange-traded product in Europe, on the Euronext Paris and Euronext Amsterdam stock exchanges.

Those listings have contributed to SUI-based exchange-traded products having $317.2 million in assets under management (AUM), according to a May 26 report from CoinShares.

Flows into SUI ETPs increased by $2.9 million between May 16 and May 24, and only trails Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Solana and XRP (XRP) in terms of net assets.

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Growing BTC reserve requires Congressional legislation — VanEck exec

Published

6 hours ago

May 27, 2025

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Growing BTC reserve requires Congressional legislation — VanEck exec

Building a permanent US strategic Bitcoin reserve would likely require targeted legislation rather than executive action, according to VanEck’s head of digital assets, Matthew Sigel. Speaking at Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas, Sigel said the most viable path forward may involve inserting Bitcoin mining incentives into the congressional budget reconciliation process.

According to Sigel, the most effective path to growing a US strategic Bitcoin reserve would be through targeted amendments to congressional budget legislation. These could include tax credits for mining companies that use methane gas and other incentives aimed at encouraging miners to share a portion of their mined BTC with the federal government.

He argued that such an approach would allow the reserve to grow organically over time. Sigel also highlighted the limitations of executive actions in achieving this goal:

“The problem with executive action is that it’s going to prompt lawsuits. And anything over $100 million is going to get sued by the Elizabeth Warrens of the world. So, I would say start with something maybe in the Exchange Stabilization Fund for $100 million.”

US President Donald Trump established the US Bitcoin Strategic Reserve through a March 7 executive order. According to the order, the US government can only acquire Bitcoin through budget-neutral strategies or asset forfeiture, prompting a range of different ideas on how to add to the government’s stockpile of nearly 200,000 BTC.

Bitcoin Regulation, US Government, United States, Bitcoin Reserve, Bitcoin2025 — *From left to right, Alex Thorn, Matthew Sigel, Matthew Pines and Fred Thiel. Source: Turner Wright/*Cointelegraph

Lawmakers, officials pitch different ideas to grow strategic Bitcoin reserve

Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, the US lawmaker who introduced legislation for a Bitcoin strategic reserve in July 2024, proposed converting a portion of the gold certificates held by the US Treasury to Bitcoin.

Converting gold to Bitcoin would allow the US government to purchase more Bitcoin without incurring a cost to the taxpayer, Lummis said.

Bo Hines, the executive director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, echoed the idea in March 2025.

Hines called on the US Treasury to revalue its gold holdings, which are currently priced at just $42.22 per troy ounce, and convert a portion of those gains to Bitcoin. This strategy would also be budget-neutral, Hines said.

The price of gold reached an all-time high of $3,500 per ounce in April but experienced a minor pullback to around $3,300 on May 27.

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Trump supports bill to buy 1 million BTC — Senator Lummis

Published

6 hours ago

May 27, 2025

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Trump supports bill to buy 1 million BTC — Senator Lummis

US President Donald Trump supports the BITCOIN Act and has a team of experts in the White House working to roll out landmark digital asset legislation in the coming weeks, according to Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis.

Speaking at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, Lummis said she is bringing the BITCOIN ACT to the “attention of the American people and the world,” adding that, “President Trump supports the bill.”

In March, Lummis reintroduced the BITCOIN Act — landmark legislation that directs the US government to acquire 1 million Bitcoin (BTC) over five years. The acquisitions would be financed using existing funds within the Federal Reserve System and the Treasury Department.

As Cointelegraph reported, the Trump administration has reiterated the need to use “budget-neutral ways” to acquire Bitcoin without burdening taxpayers.

At the Bitcoin Conference, Lummis said the Trump administration has a team working on “digital asset issues,” including legislation on stablecoins, market structure and the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve.

“They will probably roll out in that order,” she said.

“The Senate Banking Committee has passed the stablecoin bill out of committee,” said Lummis, adding:

“We’re getting close to being ready to have it on the floor. We’ve worked for untold hours with the minority party to satisfy them, and we should be voting on it the week before we get back from this break.”

GENIUS Act on stablecoins is “going to pass,” says White House crypto czar

The White House seems to be in alignment with Senator Lummis.

Last week, Trump’s top crypto adviser, David Sacks, said the GENIUS stablecoin bill is “going to pass” the Senate with bipartisan support after clearing a key procedural vote on May 19.

GENIUS refers to the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act, possibly the most comprehensive federal push to establish a legal framework for dollar-pegged stablecoins.

Stablecoins have become one of the most prominent use cases for blockchain technology, with some industry advocates arguing that they could help extend the US dollar’s dominance as the global reserve currency.

Collateralized, dollar-backed stablecoins like Tether’s USDt (USDT) and Circle’s USDC (USDC) account for more than 85% of the $250 billion market, according to CoinMarketCap.