Freelancer trade association The Professional Contractors Group (PCG) presented a chocolate teapot to prime minister Gordon Brown at the Labour Party Conference in Manchester yesterday. 

The group said the gesture was in response to the government’s continuing failure to recognise the 1.4m freelancers contribution to the UK’s economy.

John Brazier, managing director of PCG, was at the Party Conference today and said: “Gordon Brown repeatedly mentioned fairness in his speech and we would certainly like to see some fairness shown to freelancers, particularly on tax issues. There are 1.4m freelancers contributing hugely to UK plc and the government continues to ignore them. The UK’s freelance community is growing and it includes some of the country’s most experienced and talented workers who make up a highly skilled, highly mobile and flexible 21st century workforce. It’s about time government acknowledged them, recognised them, helped them and stopped penalising them – that would be fair.  A chocolate teapot represents the usefulness of government action to date!”