Following his campaign to scrap the capping of charitable tax relief, David Ruffley MP, member of the Treasury Select Committee and former HM Treasury Special Adviser, said:

'If the Budget proposal to cap tax relief had gone ahead, then gifts to charities would have been cut by a massive one and a half billion pounds (£1.5 billion), according to Oxford Economics. Given this, foregoing £50m - £100m of tax revenue is a small price to pay. Scrapping the cap is fair and it is affordable. The markets will certainly not see this as a weakening of the Chancellor's resolve to cut the deficit.

The cap on charitable relief only arose because Nick Clegg wanted a so-called 'Tycoon Tax'. Of course, we all want an end to dodgy tax schemes involving highly dubious charities that do not deliver genuine public benefit. But the cap was a sledgehammer to crack a nut. It would have ended up penalising all charities.

Instead of consulting over the summer the Chancellor has acted decisively now to scrap it completely.'