Jeremy Hunt doubles down on claim £100k a year 'is not a huge salary' after criticism for being 'out of touch'
24 March 2024, 18:58
Jeremy Hunt has doubled down on his claim that £100,000 a year 'doesn’t go as far as you might think; after he was criticised for being out of touch.
The Chancellor said earlier this weekend in a post on X that £100k for people in his South West Surrey constituency was "not a huge salary". The median salary for a full-time worker was just under £35,000 last year.
He made the remark while discussing calls he had been making to residents as part of his work as a constituency MP.
He has not defended his claim, saying people in his constituency were living in an area with very high house prices.
It comes after Labour hit out at the chancellor and his claim, saying it revealed how "desperately out of touch" the Tory Government is.
The chancellor told Sky News Sunday morning: "What sounds like a large salary – when you have house prices averaging around £670,000 in my area and you’ve got a mortgage and childcare costs – it doesn’t go as far as you might think.
"We weren’t able to afford to fund childcare for people on the higher salaries but I was simply saying that’s something I’d love to be able to look at in the next parliament.”
He maintained his defence on the BBC, telling the outlet: “I do accept that even on those higher salaries, people are feeling under pressure."
Hunt said the cost of housing, childcare, and taxes meant that the salary did not go as far as people think.
Shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth hit out at the chancellor, saying her was "desperately out of touch".
Ashworth said: "The overwhelming majority of working people in this country would dream of earning that, yet they are all being made to pay the price of 14 years of Tory failure.
"It is staggering for the Chancellor to complain about mortgage costs when it was the Conservatives who crashed the economy with their kamikaze budget and sent mortgage costs through the roof.
"Only a Labour government will stand up for working people and tackle the cost-of-living crisis."
It comes after Tory minister Dame Andrea Leadsom said the drop in inflation meant that we were "seeing the cost-of-living crisis end".
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Asked about Leadsom's comments hailing the end of the cost-of-living crisis, Hunt said: "We're not there yet."
The chancellor said: "We've had a very, very tough patch, caused actually by something you've been talking about this morning, the invasion of Ukraine... I think people will welcome the fact that inflation has fallen.
"But we're not there yet, and we need to stick to the course because we need inflation to get down to 2 per cent.
"The thing that will make the biggest difference for families up and down the country is when interest rates fall, and therefore their mortgage rates start to fall."
In his Budget earlier this month, Hunt announced an increase in the threshold at which the high-income child benefit charge starts from £50,000 to £60,000 from April.
He also announced that partial child benefit would be paid where the highest earner earns up to £80,000. Working parents can receive free childcare for youngsters aged three and four.
To qualify, the majority must earn more than £8,670, but less than £100,000 per year under current rules.