Theresa May visits a steel factory in Newport on a visit to Wales, where the Tories are predicted to win the majority of seats for the first time in recent history

A tax raid on dividend incomes paid to hundreds of thousands of pensioners has been shelved as the government drops a series of controversial measures before the election. Legislation to force millions of business owners and the self-employed to file multiple tax returns each year under plans to “make tax digital” was another casualty yesterday of the decision to call a snap election.

Tough new rules for non-doms were also removed from the Finance Bill, leading to accusations that the Conservatives were breaking their promise to crack down on tax avoidance.

Ministers said that the measures were removed to create the consensus required to pass the legislation before the government ran out of parliamentary time. Treasury officials said that there was no guarantee that the