Philip Hammond told Cabinet colleagues he once spent a night sleeping on a beach during talks on homelessness, it was revealed today.
The Chancellor made the startling declaration during yesterday’s meeting of senior ministers, which discussed a £28million scheme to help rough sleepers.
Mr Hammond told colleagues he was not considered ‘homeless’ because he had once been ‘sleeping on the beach at midnight on Midsummer’s day’.
Labour slammed Mr Hammond for making light of the problem of homelessness today, just days after a rough sleeper died on Parliament’s doorstep in Westminster station.
Philip Hammond (file image) revealed to Cabinet colleagues he once spent a night sleeping on a beach during talks on homelessness, it was revealed today
The Daily Telegraph revealed the exchange today and said a Cabinet minister at the meeting joked it was his ‘fields of wheat’ moment – recalling Theresa May’s strange claim about how she misbehaved as a child.
An aide to Mr Hammond denied the Chancellor was dismissing the problem of rough sleeping England.
They said: ‘Philip would never be flippant about such a serious matter.
‘At the last Budget he announced £28million to spend on homeless people.
Labour’s shadow housing secretary John Healey (file image) slammed Mr Hammond for making light of the problem of homelessness
‘It is an issue he takes very seriously.’
Shadow Housing Secretary John Healey MP said: ‘If true, these comments are inappropriate, and confirm that Conservative ministers just don’t grasp how serious the problem of rising rough sleeping is.
‘The Chancellor must either repudiate these reports or apologise.’
The number of people sleeping rough in England reached a recorded high of 4,751 in the autumn of last year, new data revealed last month.
Figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government revealed the highest figure in the eight years rough sleeping has been tracked.
It marks another steep rise in the problem in recent years, up 15 per cent from 4,134 in 2016 to the highest point since comparable records began in 2010.
Of the people counted rough sleeping in London there were 1,137. This is an increase of 18 per cent from the 2016 figure of 964.
The number of people sleeping rough in England reached a recorded high of 4,751 in the autumn of last year, new data revealed last month – with almost a quarter in London alone
In 2017 London accounted for 24 per cent of the total England figure, compared to 23 per cent in 2016 and 26 pr cent in 2015
Charity Homeless Link said the homelessness figures amounted to a 73 per cent rise in rough sleeping over the past three years.
It is not the first time Mr Hammond has been accused of making gaffes in Cabinet.
Last summer his aides strongly denied that he had told Cabinet members that driving trains was so easy ‘even a woman can do it’.