We were just talking to Toby Dicker from the Salon Employers Association and he told us the budget was “much, much, much worse than we anticipated”.

Going into the budget he predicted a “worst case scenario” for his business would be a cost of £75,000 due to an increase in employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs), when in fact this would be £127,000.

He explained that hairdressing businesses were particularly affected by the increase in NICs because wage costs make up 60% of turnover, a figure much higher than most businesses.

Overall, she’s “stunned” and “shocked” by what Rachel Reeves revealed yesterday.

Asked whether he had made any representations to the Treasury (HMRC) ahead of the budget, Mr Dicker said 200 people from the industry had written a 17-page document about potential measures.

“We have been talking to HMRC for five years and we have also been talking to DBT (Department for Business and Trade) and they have made promises to us that they have not kept and that has forced much of our industry into the gig economy.

“This budget did not touch the gig economy,” he said, noting that a delivery company making over £100 million in profits had not paid NICs, whereas he had paid around £100,000.

An emotional Mr Dicker told the government: “You haven’t listened to us under successive administrations. We tried to tell you but you didn’t listen.”

Saying that the hairdressing industry is now “completely over”, he announced that employees will have to switch to the gig economy to reduce salon costs and apprentices will no longer be employed.

He asked ministers to sit down with him to discuss the challenges posed by this budget, saying: “You took all the profits, everything you were going to invest, and you took my salary from me.”

He declared that he, like the industry, would “fight as hard as we can” for a better deal from the government.