London: As Britain`s new Conservative-Lib
Dem coalition government prepares to wield the axe on public
spending, a report today said four-fifth members of the
cabinet are millionaires.
Eighteen of the 23 full-time cabinet members have
seven-figure fortunes, collectively worth about 50 million
pounds, The Sunday Times said.
Many of those with the biggest assets are little-known
figures whose wealth is self-made.
Prime Minister David Cameron is relative small fry:
his 3.4m pounds estimated fortune puts him only in sixth place
on the ministerial rich list.
The coalition cabinet is at least 15m pounds richer
than its Labour predecessor when property values, business
interests and shareholdings are taken into account.
Top of the list is Philip Hammond, 54, the new
transport secretary, with a fortune of 7.1m pounds.
He made the biggest slice of his wealth through the
property7 developer Castlemead, which he co-founded before
entering parliament in 1997.
Hammond`s 85 per cent stake into the firm, Lus
dividends over the past five years, add up to 3m pounds.
He also owns a 2m pounds mansion - complete with
tennis court and swimming pool - in his Surrey constituency
and a 2.1m pounds house in Chelsea.
Second in the list is Caroline Spelman, 52, the
environment secretary.
She along with her husband has assets worth 5m pounds,
including a red-brick mansion with a sweeping driveway near
Solihull in the West Midlands valued at 2m pounds.
In third place is the chancellor, George Osborne, 39,
who is tasked with slashing Britain`s forecast 156 billion
pounds budget deficit.
He benefits from a 15 per cent stake in his family`s
upmarket wallpaper business, Osborne & Litt,e a firm valued at
12m pounds.
Jeremy Hunt, 43, the culture secretary who co-founded
an educational publisher called Hotcourses after an earlier
venture exporting marmalade to Japan flopped is fourth in the
list.
She has fortune worth 4.4m pounds.
PTI
