Jeremy Hunt discusses link between Princess Kate and his brother & £100k wages with Trevor Phillips

It’s a busy Sunday morning for the Chancellor of the Exchequer today, as Jeremy Hunt MP not only appeared on BBC One’s flagship politics programme “Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg,” but also was interviewed by Trevor Phillips on his Sunday morning programme on Sky News.

Among the topics Hunt discussed were two of this week’s big talking points; his comments about how earning £100k a year isn’t as much as one would think if you lived in his Surrey constituency, and the revelation by the Princess of Wales that she is undergoing preventative chemotherapy after a cancer diagnosis. 

Regarding the latter, Hunt commended Princess Catherine on coming out to announce her cancer diagnosis. “It was incredibly moving and I think I was touched like everyone else was,” he told Trevor Phillips. “I think the thing that really cut me to the quick was when she explained the hardest thing of all for people who have had cancer and their family, which is how you tell your kids.

“And that’s obviously been a huge huge thing for her and the Prince of Wales, and I know in my own family when my brother had cancer, that was the most difficult thing.” Hunt’s brother, Charlie, was diagnosed with cancer in 2020 and died at the age of 53 from sarcoma three years later.

“I think when she said that, she just connected with everyone, and we all felt that yes, it’s the royal family, but in some ways they’re like every other family and they’re going through the same horrible things that sadly we all have to go through from time to time.”

How did Jeremy Hunt explain his controversial £100k salary comment?

As for his comments earlier this week that £100,000 a year “doesn’t go as far as you think” for his constituents, the Chancellor reinforced his comment that the amount still was “not a huge salary” for those living in South West Surrey. “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.” 

The chancellor suggested changes to childcare funding to benefit higher-earning parents would not be considered in this Parliament, but did not back down from his statements from earlier this week.