Anger as Jeremy Hunt says £100,000 is 'not a huge salary'

Jeremy Hunt made the remark at the end of a social media post about some phone conversations he had with constituents – and social media users have shared their anger with one mockingly describing Hunt as a "man of the people".

In a list of conversations he reportedly had, Hunt listed a discussion with a woman from Godalming in his constituency of South West Surrey.

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He said the woman had enquired about the UK Government's childcare offer – which families are not eligible for if one parent is earning more than £100,000.

Hunt wrote: "That is an issue I would really like to sort out after the next election as I am aware that it is not huge salary in our area if you have a mortgage to pay."

☎️Constituency Calls ☎️
My first call was to Rosemary French, President of the Cranleigh Chamber of Commerce to talk about the planned changes to the High Street. She talked to me about the problems of the pavements not being wide enough, the huge success of street markets and… pic.twitter.com/A5zupGOCsE

— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) March 22, 2024

The UK’s median gross annual salary for full-time employees was £34,963 in April 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Jonathan Portes, professor of economics at King's College London and a senior fellow with UK In A Changing Europe, reacted to the post: "Issue: Jeremy Hunt would 'really like to sort out after election' free childcare for someone earning over £100k because 'it's not a huge salary'. Issue: Jeremy Hunt couldn't care less about sorting out 3.7 million people (government stats) who can't afford to buy food for their families."

Elsewhere, senior analyst Ross Mudie – for think tank Centre for Progressive Policy – wrote: "If a £100k salary is too low to handle the costs of childcare and housing, then perhaps we need to be looking very seriously at what we can do to reduce the costs of both, quickly."

Another social media user wrote: "Why doesn’t the lady in Godalming just get a second job? Or try using supermarket own brand food? Or make dinner for 30p? Like the Tories tell all the poor northern people to do?"

One person wrote: "How absolutely crass to suggest that £100k salary is not huge!" as another added: "In what world is £100,000 not a huge salary?"

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Later, shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth said: “The Chancellor has again revealed how desperately out of touch the Tories are with working people when he claims someone earning £100,000 a year is not a ‘huge salary’.

“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."

In his Budget earlier this month, Mr 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.