Jeremy Hunt has said he wished his wife a happy birthday during the Autumn Statement after he forgot to buy her a card.

The Chancellor began his speech on Wednesday by telling his wife, Lucia, who was watching from the press gallery with their children, that she looked “younger every year”.

He later admitted feeling “incredibly guilty” for not buying his wife a card or a present and that he was hoping to make up for it on the weekend.

It is not the first time the Chancellor may have ended up in his wife’s bad books. On a state visit to China three years ago, he mistakenly said she was Japanese, rather than Chinese, before correcting himself and apologising for the “terrible mistake”.

Mr Hunt told the House of Commons on Wednesday: “I come today with good news. It’s my wife’s birthday and unlike me, she’s looking younger every year.”

Lucia Hunt laughed and covered her face when she was mentioned, while their three children – who had looked serious as their father got to his feet – grinned along.

They sat through Prime Minister’s Questions and Mr Hunt’s 52-minute speech, but left as Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, attacked the Conservatives’ “13 years of economic failure”.

Speaking to LBC Radio the following day, Mr Hunt said: “I’m afraid I have not bought anything for my wife. I didn’t even get her a birthday card. I feel incredibly guilty.

“What I did was publicly acknowledge her birthday to millions of people, which is something I haven’t done before. So, hopefully I will be able to make up for that at the weekend.”

Mr Hunt met his wife, who was born in Xi’an in central China, while she was working at Warwick University in 2008.

He has previously described her as his “secret weapon”, and between them they are fluent in four languages: English, Chinese, Japanese and French.