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Jeremy Hunt raked in more than £1million last year as the Tories introduced vicious spending cuts.

The Health Secretary struck the jackpot as the education company he set up paid him a massive £972,538 dividend.

With his Cabinet minister’s salary, currently £134,565, and his shareholding in Hotcourses Limited, Mr Hunt has now banked £3.3million since 2010.

The eye-watering figures came as the Government faced claims it was “out of touch” with its austerity measures.

Labour MP Paul Flynn said: “People will be horrified, particularly those who have had their benefits cut by the Tories.

“They will see this gulf between rich MPs and the rest of the country, who are struggling, and just wonder what is going on.

“It’s an increasingly divided society where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It sends out the wrong message.”

(Image: PA)

The cash-strapped NHS has struggled to find £20billion of savings since 2010 – and the new Tory Government is preparing a fresh £12billion assault on welfare.

But Mr Hunt is unlikely ever to rely on social security himself, documents filed with Companies House suggest.

The privately educated minister, 48, co-founded education directory Hotcourses with business partner Mike Elms in 1986.

An analysis of five years of records shows he pocketed £885,821 in dividends in 2010, falling to £285,095 a year later.

No dividends were paid to Mr Hunt in 2012 – the year he went from Culture Secretary to Health Secretary.

But in the following 12 months, he netted one pound short of half a million. Then came his ­near-seven-figure windfall in 2014.

The latest accounts show he holds 285,095 ordinary shares in Hotcourses.

(Image: Hotcourses)

An interim dividend of £3.41 per share was paid in December 2013, according to records for the year ending July 31, 2014.

The firm had a turnover of more than £12million in that 12-month period, with pre-tax profits of £3.2million. It paid more than £670,000 in tax and donates 5% of its profits to help African children’s education.

South West Surrey MP Mr Hunt was criticised in August 2013 after the Mirror revealed how he blew nearly £4,000 of taxpayers’ cash on learning his Chinese wife’s language.

A spokesman for Mr Hunt declined last night to comment.