The Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said that “£100,000” a year “is not a huge salary” and he has been criticised for being out of touch.
The Chancellor who is worth around £17 million said that a £100,000 salary “doesn’t go as far as you might think” for those who live in south-west Surrey.
Surrey county councillor Paul Follows, said, “Perhaps this is the case when you are a multi-millionaire who can funnel £100,000-plus into his own campaign without breaking a sweat – but it’s a great deal more than the national or local average and a massive indicator as to why the cost-of-living crisis impacting residents across the country seems to have missed him totally.”
The Chancellor told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, “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.”
How rich is Jeremy Hunt?
Shadow paymaster general Jonathan 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.”
Rohit Kohli, director at The Mortgage Stop said, “If Jeremey Hunt is feeling sorry for someone in Surrey struggling on £100k, I’m sure he is going to go ballistic when he hears of all the nurses, doctors, police officers, council workers and countless others earning less than half that. What an out-of-touch Chancellor.”
Riz Malik, director at R3 Mortgages said, “The whole government has gone gaga.
“They live in a world of privilege not poverty so a six figure salary is probably insignificant to them even though it still goes a long way in the world of mortgages.”
