Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
What planet is Hammond on?
Fury as Tory brands public workers overpaid But tycoon has 2 free homes and £10k in rent
AS millions of public sector workers he claims are “overpaid” struggle to meet household bills, Philip Hammond enjoys a rent-free life in homes paid for with taxpayer cash.
And apart from the two grace and favour properties the Chancellor has use of, he is also pocketing £10,000 a month renting out his city townhouse.
Tycoon Mr Hammond was last night accused of being out of touch with the public sector staff, including cleaners, nurses, teachers and 999 crews, he laughingly claims are paid too much, despite his cap of 1% on wage rises.
And the hypocritical Tory sparked even more fury by declaring “there isn’t a free lunch” – despite the two homes he does not pay for.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “He is living on a different planet.
“Public sector workers have had frozen wages for the past seven years.” Unison branded Mr Hammond’s claim that nurses and hospital cleaners are overpaid “offensive”.
The union’s assistant general secretary Christina Mcanea said: “The Chancellor’s remarks show he is completely out of touch. After seven years of a punishing pay cap, all public sector employees need a pay rise. The care worker hurrying from house to house doesn’t feel overpaid, nor does the hospital cleaner working round the clock, or the teaching assistant going the extra mile for the children.
“They are all low paid, all vital, and all in need of a pay rise now.”
The Royal College of Nursing added: “Nurses across the UK are being forced to take second jobs, rely on family handouts or even turn to foodbanks.
“It would be insulting of the Government to claim these people earn too much.”
But Mr Hammond yesterday shamelessly tried the old Tory trick of pitching ordinary people against each other by declaring public sector staff are better paid than private workers.
Interviewed on the BBC Andrew Marr show, he failed to deny saying at a Cabinet meeting cleaners and others were overpaid.
“This is a relative question,” he said.
“It is a simple fact that public sector workers on average are paid about 10% more than private sector workers.
“The only way we can create the high wage economy we want to have sustainably is to increase productivity, to get our public finances into good order. There isn’t a short cut. There isn’t a free lunch.”
Maybe not for ordinary people. But Mr Hammond, who earns £67,505 as Chancellor on top of his MP salary of £74,000, moved rent-free into 11 Downing Street last year after he was promoted by Theresa May. But we can reveal he advertised his five-bedroom townhouse in Belgravia, South West London, for £2,500 a week – enough to pay for five full-time nurses.
Records show he started renting it out in February, just a week before his botched bid to clobber self-employed staff with a tax hike in his first budget.
The property tycoon, who is worth more than £8million, bought it with his wife in 2007 for £1.07million. Others there sell for up to £6.7million.
Up until 2011, when the rules were changed, Mr Hammond was claiming up to £24,000 a year from the taxpayer to fund mortgage interest payments.
He also enjoys free use of Dorneywood, a Buckinghamshire mansion owned by the National Trust which is handed over for use by Chancellors or other top ministers. And a Channel 4 Dispatches programme revealed last week that Mr Hammond could make millions in a deal with a firm if land next to his constituency home in Surrey gets planning permission.
The Chancellor bought the greenbelt three-acre plot for £100,000 in 2008 from a housebuilder with an option to sell it back for a potential £6million and split the profits equally.
Mr Hammond refused to comment on the home he is renting out.
But he denied in the TV interview yesterday claims he made sexist remarks about women train drivers.
Mr Corbyn called on the Chancellor and other Tories to “reconnect” with ordinary people rather than just focusing on their rich chums.
He said: “There should be a bit more time spent talking to those who do the difficult jobs in our public services. That’s who you are there to represent.”
NURSES, teachers, firefighters, police officers and soldiers would love to be as fortunate as Philip Hammond.
The Tory Chancellor rents out his own London home for more than £10,000 a month while taxpayers house him in a Downing Street apartment and he enjoys the run of a grace and favour country mansion.
So his refusal to pay public service workers what they’re worth, reducing the value of their living standards year after year by imposing below inflation increases, is a case of nauseating double standards.
Hammond feeling sorry for himself over criticism shows he is divorced from the real world. We reserve our sympathy for those he cheats of a decent wage rise.
Pitching public and private sector workers against each other is, thankfully, a busted political strategy when the election found people are fed up with Tory austerity. Pay up, Hammond, or face the consequences.