Well, the results are in, and the votes have been counted in favour of Liz Truss, but will she be good for contractors?
Not so many votes – the win was by a lower margin than expected, with fewer votes than previous leaders of the Conservative Party. Yet that does not matter now. Liz Truss made it in the race to become Prime Minister, but will she be good for contractors?
This is a question on the lips of the contracting world. No doubt a collective sigh of relief has also been breathed in, that Rishi Sunak was not successful. He is very much seen as the man who implemented IR35 reforms despite their potential flaws.
Liz Truss in contrast may show some potential in being interested in contractors and their work. She may even go so far as to consider some reforms of her own.
This is mainly based on a talk she gave at an event co-organised by IPSE recently, alongside her interview in The Sun a couple of weeks ago. Yet others are sceptical. What can we glean from this matter?
Well first of all Liz Truss is a qualified Management Accountant so has some knowledge of financial matters. She has said at least that she wants to ‘get things done’ and she has previously said she does not think IR35 is good for contractors. These are good steps, yet in a recent poll of 470 contractors 94% of limited company workers did not believe that she would actually probe off-payroll working at all.
Is this apathy towards those in power or do people not believe in her specifically?
As time passes, the people of the UK will be expecting her to make promises and deliver on them.
This will be exactly the same for contractors. They will want Liz Truss to put her money where her mouth is. The previous government very much isolated contractors and hurt them again and again with policies.
They are looking for change. There will be all eyes on Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor to see what might come into their pockets. There is a series of negative issues at the moment what with the rising prices of commodities such as energy and food.
There will be all eyes on what the new government will be doing there too. Some say IR35 cannot be a priority at this time. It will be interesting to see what Liz Truss does consider her priorities in office and who she wants to appeal to.
Things have not been easy since the Conservatives got into power for groups like contractors. Whether this is going to change or not remains to be seen. Perhaps the best we can expect is that when the current crises have eased, that she changes focus.
Of course, a government can choose to achieve a great many things at once. However, there is a tendency to focus in on the big things to the exclusion of all others. We can only imagine what will happen in this case.
It is going to be another wait and see situation. Let’s hope something good can shine through in time.
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