The boss of British Gas’s parent company has said there is “no point” trying to justify his £4.5 million pay package, as he recognised that many of his customers were struggling to pay their bills.

Chris O’Shea, who runs Centrica, told BBC Breakfast that “you can’t justify a salary of that size”.

“It’s a huge amount of money, I am incredibly fortunate. I don’t set my own pay, that’s set by our remuneration committee.

“That’s the first bonus I’ve taken in my time at Centrica, for a number of years, I’ve given up bonuses because of hardships that customers were facing,” he said.

The company has set aside £100 million for a hardship fund, which has helped about 21,000 customers since 2021 by writing off up to £2,000 in debt.

It’s a huge amount of money, I am incredibly fortunate

“I thought it was right that we put a lot of our money, a lot of our profits, into supporting customers. But you can’t justify a salary of that size,” Mr O’Shea said on Friday

“You can’t, because it’s a huge amount of money to anybody looking at this.”

Asked why he accepts such high pay, the chief executive pointed to the presenters sitting around him

“I suppose for the same reason, I mean, if you look, the average salary in the UK is around £30,000,” he said.

“All of us sitting here on this sofa will make substantially more than £30,000. It’s not for me to set my own pay. It’s not for you to set your own pay.

“But you’ve got to recognise that when you’ve got people who are struggling, and I look at my mum who’s on the basic state pension, it’s just impossible to justify, so there’s no point in trying to do that.”