Hammond under fire for ‘living on

● Chancellor accused of being out of touch after saying ‘there are no unemployed people’ during television interview

typist these days, but where are all these unemployed people? There are no unemployed people.”

After Mr Marr reacted with surprise to the statement, Mr Hammond added: “We have created 3.5 million new jobs since 2010. This economy has become a jobs factory, constantly reinventing itself, constantly creating new jobs and careers.” In the Budget, Mr Hammond is set to announce a national retraining scheme in collaboration with the CBI and Trade Union Congress, including £36 million for digital skills courses using artificial intelligence.

Mr Hammond’s remarks quickly provoked disbelief, anger and ridicule on social media, prompting Mr Marr to ask him whether he accepted there were actually 1.4 million unemployed people in the UK.

The Chancellor replied: “Of course.” He then added: “Unemployment is at record lows, the lowest it’s been since the 1970s.

“We’ve got a remarkable record of creating new jobs and we’re getting people into work at a remarkable rate and that’s something we should be extremely proud of.

“[The unemployed] haven’t been forgotten by this government. We’re focused on getting them into work. It was the last Labour government that abandoned the unemployed, ignored them, dumped them on welfare.”

Opposition parties attacked the Chancellor’s remarks. Labour’s shadow minister for the Cabinet Office Jon Trickett accused Mr Hammond of “living on another planet”.

“If the person in charge of the country’s finances doesn’t know, or chooses to ignore, the fact that nearly 1.5 million people are unemployed and almost a million people are on zerohours contracts, then he is clearly losing a grip on reality,” he said.

Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable also accused the Chancellor of being “out of touch”. He added that unemployment was a long-term issue as a large number of the UK’S jobless were “second or third generation”.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “This government is looking increasingly hapless.

“I mean, how out of touch is this Chancellor. Theresa May looks completely bewildered all the time, this government could collapse at any moment.”

In a later appearance on ITV, Mr Hammond was asked about his gaffe again. “Of course I didn’t mean that,” he said. “There are 1.4 million unemployed people in this country and that’s 1.4 million too many.

“The point I was making ... is that previous waves of technological change have not resulted in millions of people being long-term unemployed. They have been re-absorbed into the workforce.”

Mr Hammond’s misstep came as the government’s technological push includes announcing a national retraining scheme to help workers across the country learn new skills as more traditional jobs become automated. A first step will include £36m for digital skills courses using artificial intelligence. An extra £40 million will be invested in construction training programmes.

Mr Hammond separately said he expected Britain’s national debt to start falling thanks to the government’s deficit reduction plan.

“We are now at the point, or almost at the point, where that debt stops growing and starts to slowly decline,” he said.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, on The Andrew