Social media customers mock PM’s try to clarify how he is in contact

Rishi Sunak has become a meme sensation overnight after he left D-Day commemorations early to do an interview with ITV in which he claimed he understood what it is like to go without because his family didn’t have Sky TV. 

He has been thoroughly mocked on social media after attempting to explain how he could relate to ordinary people. 

Now a fundraising page for ‘Rishi Sunak’s Sky TV Fund’ has even been set up as a tongue-in-cheek campaign to raise money for food poverty charity the Trussell Trust.

The under-fire Prime Minister faced widespread criticism for leaving Normandy, France on Sunday before an international gathering of leaders which was attended by the likes of President Biden, President Zelensky and Sir Keir Starmer.

It emerged he dashed back to London to do an interview with ITV’s Paul Brand, before heading to an election campaign meeting – with ITV saying it was the PM’s team who chose the timing.

After it aired last night Mr Sunak’s woes quickly intensified after he was pressed on how he could understand what it is like for British families battling the cost of living crisis given he is ‘richer than the King’.

The Prime Minister responded that as a child his family went without ‘lots of things’ and said his parents put all their money into his £52,000-a-year education at Winchester College, because it was a ‘priority’.

When pressed on what he had had to give up, Mr Sunak squirmed and laughed, saying: ‘Lots of things. There would have been all sorts of things I wanted as a kid.’

He added: ‘Famously Sky TV. That was something we never had growing up, actually. But there are lots of things.’

The internet was quick to pick up on the exchange, with one person sharing a photo of an iconic game show: Rishi Sunak, we asked 100 members of the audience what did you go without when you were a child… you said “a Sky dish”‘.

A second shared a picture of Matt Hancock appearing to pretend to cry during a TV interview, adding: ‘Heartbreaking. Poor kid.’

Another meme showed Ant and Dec laughing with the caption: ‘Paul, now try and get Rishi Sunak to say Sky TV.’

Others showed stills or clips from shows such as Blackadder, Brooklyn 99 and the Star Wars franchise.

One user simply shared a clip of someone playing a tiny violin.

A fundraising page, clearly stating all proceeds will go to the Trussell Trust, was started within 24 hours of the clip first going viral.

The organiser wrote: ‘Millions of people across the UK were heartbroken to read the recent interview with Rishi Sunak when he revealed that, during his childhood, he had no access to Sky TV.

‘Unlike thousands of children, Rishi’s deprived childhood included no satellite TV – a fate surely shared with his poverty-stricken friends who were also students at the private Winchester School.

‘Despite this unimaginably tough start, Rishi worked hard and rose to a position where, as an investment banker, he earned millions after he bet on a bank that was subsequently bailed out by taxpayers.

‘Rishi is now facing more hardship. He is down to just one helicopter and he could soon be out of a job. Forced to live on just a PM’s pension and quite a few tens of millions in the bank, Rishi could once again be deprived of Sky TV.

‘So I am asking you for help.

‘Please donate to this fundraiser. All the money will go to the Trussell Trust to help people who, like younger Rishi and because of older Rishi, are unable to make ends meet. They provide food and support for those in desperate need in the UK.’

Some social media users pointed out that Sky TV did not launch until 1989, when Mr Sunak would have been nine years old.

Another said: ‘I’ve changed my mind about Sunak now. We struggled as kids, little food, no heating and my mum to take my teeth out with pliers but at least we had Sky TV. Poor Rishi.’ 

In another awkward moment, Mr Sunak apologies for keeping Mr Brand waiting explaining the D-Day anniversary event ‘all just ran over’.

‘Yeah, it all just ran over… it was incredible but it just ran over everything,’ he says, before saying he ‘spoke to almost every one [of the veterans in Normandy] there, I hope’.

Mr Sunak has apologised for leaving Normandy early, saying it was a ‘mistake’. 

He left behind Foreign Secretary David Cameron, the Labour leader and the King, who was in attendance despite having cancer. 

The Tory leader told Nick Robinson that he hoped people could ‘find it in their hearts’ to forgive his blunder.

Amid rising Tory alarm about the fallout from the D-Day row, Mr Sunak said: ‘Well, the last thing that I wanted to do was cause anyone any hurt or offence or upset, which is why I apologised unreservedly for the mistake that I made.

‘And I can only ask that I hope people can find it within their hearts to forgive me and also look at my actions as Prime Minister to increase investment in our armed forces, to support our armed forces, but also to ensure that veterans have a minister sitting around the Cabinet table with unprecedented support to make this the best country in the world to be a veteran as a demonstration of how deeply I care about this community and what they’ve done for our country.’

He and Sir Keir Starmer will face questions in Grimsby later today as part of a Sky News special programme hosted by Beth Rigby. 

Prior to the live broadcast, Mr Sunak is expected to be out campaigning in North East Lincolnshire following the launch of the Tories’ manifesto on Tuesday, which proposed to halve immigration and tax cuts totalling £17.2 billion. 

Meanwhile, Sir Keir will be championing Labour’s pledge to spend £380 million fixing one million potholes every year.