The U-turn comes after several Tory MPs voiced their opposition to the plan.

BBC political correspondent Nick Eardley said government sources were not commenting.

Ex-cabinet minister Grant Shapps had warned Liz Truss would lose a Commons vote on the proposal.

The plan to scrap the 45p rate, paid by people earning over £150,000 a year, had been criticised as unfair at time of rising living costs.

On Sunday, the prime minister told the BBC she was committed to it, saying it was part of an “overall package of making our tax system simpler and lower”.

But Nick Eardley said the measure had seen remarkable opposition to it from some in the markets, from opposition parties and many Tory MPs.

“I think the thing that crystallised the government’s fear over this is the number of Conservative MPs that have lined up in the last 24 hours to say that this was a display of the wrong values, that it suggested the government was on the side of the rich rather than those struggling with the cost of living,

“And secondly it was the fear it wouldn’t get through parliament, that Liz Truss simply didn’t have the numbers to get this through.”