Probed by MPs at the Treasury Committee over the fallout from the proposed closure of phone helplines, HMRC chief executive Jim Harra said: ‘There was a strength of feeling from stakeholders that we did not expect. Our strategy is still digital first but we are not proceeding with the changes announced on 19 March. We will engage with stakeholders – we need to go through all the concerns that stakeholders had.’

Committee chair Harriet Baldwin asked whether the closure was an operational decision, but Harra rejected this, saying: ‘No, that was not the case, HMRC decided it was a good idea to do this. That was shared with ministers.’

Clearly the level of outrage about the decision had shaken HMRC, with Harra stressing to MPs that the tax office had done plenty of internal research before taking the decision.