MP calls for support to newly self-employed to be backdated and for Chancellor to help other excluded groups

Commenting on the news that people who became self-employed in the 2019/20 financial year will finally be eligible for Government financial support, local MP Tim Farron said: "This is something I've been worked hard with cross-party colleagues on for a long while, so it's a welcome relief that those who became self-employed in the year leading up to the pandemic will now finally be entitled to support.

"However the fact that is has taken the Government almost 12 months to sort this is frankly inexcusable. The lack of support for these people will have meant many of them facing real hardship, getting into deep and desperate debt as a result.

"That's why it is only right, fair and just that this support must be backdated.

"It's also worth noting that the 150,000 or so newly self-employed people are just one group out of many of the three million people who have fallen through the cracks.

"In his Budget speech this afternoon, the Chancellor must announce support for the many freelancers, small business owners, directors of small limited companies and more who are so crucial to our local economy here in Cumbria but who have been left behind by this Government."