The government has confirmed the reversal of nearly every tax cut announced in the September’s mini-budget, although the stamp duty cut for house purchases will remain.

The announcement was made earlier today by chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who replaced Kwasi Kwarteng on Friday last week.

Today’s cancelling of much of the mini-budget was presaged by a rowing back of corporation tax cuts on Friday, which itself was a second major U-turn by the Liz Truss government.

Alongside the remaining stamp duty cuts, the new chancellor said today that the scrapping of the national insurance rise would stay put and that the support for energy bills will be reviewed in April rather than in two years’ time.

And plans to repeal the IR35 reforms will not go ahead.

“The most important objective for our country right now is stability. Governments cannot eliminate volatility in markets, but they can play their part, and we will do so. Because instability affects the prices of things in shops, the cost of mortgages and the values of pensions,” Hunt said.

Regarding IR35, IR35 Shield chief executive Dave Chaplin comments: “The government’s initial commitment to repealing the off-payroll rules was a sensible initiative and would have been a significant step forward for the UK’s army of self-employed people who are critical to the government’s pro-growth agenda.

“Repealing off-payroll would have returned an essential level of certainty to contract transactions in the market economy, leading to economic growth. Instead, off-payroll will continue to cause significant harm to the self-employed, major businesses, the government, and the economy.

“Whilst we agree that tax avoidance measures are sensible, the off-payroll rules over-extended, causing genuinely self-employed contractors to lose their rights to being their own boss.”