PHILIP Hammond is often viewed as a boring accountant obsessed with spreadsheets but the country’s top financier has had an exciting career.
From a schoolboy running church-hall discos to an Essex housing developer seizing an overlooked opportunity to make millions, here’s what you need to know about Hammond.
Who is Philip Hammond?
Hammond has been the Conservative MP for Runnymede and Weybridge in Surrey since 1997, and was appointed as Chancellor of the Exchequer by Theresa May on July 13, 2016, taking over from George Osborne.
The 63-year-old grew up in Epping, Essex, and attended Shenfield School in Brentwood before studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics at University College, Oxford, where he moved in the same social circles as May.
Journalist Andrew Gimson told Conservative Home that Hammond “has long sought to guard his privacy by appearing less interesting than he really is”.
The dad-of-three is set to deliver Budget 2018 on Monday, October 29, to avoid clashing with the final Brexit negotiations in November.
Who is Philip Hammond married to?
Hammond married Susan Williams-Walker in 1991, meeting her when she was election agent for his friend and former colleague Lord Moynihan.
The pair have three children – Amy, Sophie and William – and live in Send, Surrey.
Susan is co-director of Castlemead and is involved in organising parties for MPs’ other-halves.
Ms Williams-Walker has been described as “glamorous and fun, with a good sense of humour”, according to the Express.
Was Philip Hammond a goth?
Friends have recalled Hammond’s “lovely, long silky hair”, while schoolmate Richard Madeley says he was cool and popular with a “breezy unconcern for what anyone else might think”.
Madeley says the young Tory would stroll into school with a Daily Telegraph under his arm, and revelled in political arguments with their Guardian-reading history teacher.
In a blog for the Spectator, Madeley described the 15-year-old Hammond wearing a dark leather trench-coat, shoulder-length black hair and square-heeled boots.
He wrote: “If I’d somehow intuited, as I say, that this lanky 15-year-old with the questing, beaky nose and rimless glasses, this proto-goth, would one day be Chancellor of the Exchequer…Well, actually, I wouldn’t have been remotely surprised.”
Hammond later laughed off the comments, and said goths “hadn’t been invented” in those days.
Another school pal Nina Stratford recalled drinking sherry with the teenager in his room before sharing a cheeky snog.
“Who’d have thought that Philip Hammond was such a good kisser?”, she told the Telegraph.
Has Philip Hammond resigned?
Hammond announced on July 21, he would resigned as the Chancellor if Boris Johnson becomes the next Prime Minister.
He said he would quit before PMQs on Wednesday, July 23 if Bojo secures the top job in the UK.
Hammond told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show he can’t sign up to Mr Johnson’s Brexit plans and will therefore step down shortly before Theresa May leaves office.
He said: “I’m sure I’m not going to be sacked because I’m going to resign before we get to that point.
“Assuming that Boris Johnson becomes the next Prime Minister, I understand the conditions for serving in his Cabinet will include accepting a No Deal exit on October 31, and it’s not something that I could ever sign up to.
“I intend to resign after Prime Minister’s Questions, before the Prime Minister goes to the Palace.
“All the pollsters, all the bookmakers suggest that Boris Johnson is going to win – the question is by how much.”
The day before his bombshell announcement on July 20, he was seen packing his bags and leaving Downing Street.
The Chancellor – whose official resident is at 11 Downing Street – was seen loading suitcases into the back of a car ahead of what are almost certainly his final days in the job.
All the budget news in one place
What is Philip Hammond’s net worth?
Despite being dubbed the “ultimate boring accountant” who loves spreadsheets, Hammond is a natural entrepreneur.
Schoolfriends recall him making cash as a teenager by running church-hall discos, and he is said to have bought and sold cars from the nearby Ford Dagenham plant.
As a student he joined a business venture to sell summer trips to the city to Iranian tourists, according to the FT, before graduating with a first and heading up several companies through the 1980s.
Reports claim Hammond is the second richest serving MP with an estimated fortune of £8.2million.
While he earns £134,565 from his job, his wealth comes from the housing developer Castlemead which he and pal Tony Gregson set up in 1984.
The company reportedly took off after Hammond spotted an opportunity in the details of healthcare reforms, which allowed health authorities to commission new doctors’ surgeries.
Castlemead started building doctors’ surgeries within its housing developments, driving turnover from £44,000 in 1994 to more than £10million a decade later, reports the Financial Times.
So when the financial crisis battered the housebuilding sector after 2007, Castlemead hung on thanks to its healthcare revenues.
Hammond was challenged to publish his tax returns by his opposite number John McDonnell, but he refused, dismissing it as “demonstration politics”.
https://textbacklinkexchanges.com/what-is-philip-hammonds-net-worth-and-why-is-he-resigning-as-chancellor-of-the-exchequer/
News Photo What is Philip Hammond’s net worth and why is he resigning as Chancellor of the Exchequer?
Advertising
You don’t have to pack away your dress just because you’re the wrong side of 20. These body-beautiful stars reveal their secrets to staying in shape and prove you can smoulder in a two-piece, whatever your age. Read on and be bikini inspired!
Kim says: “I am no super-thin Hollywood actress. I am built for men who like women to look like women.”
https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/nintchdbpict000306002188.jpg?strip=all&w=960
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий