Sunak had no Sky TV as baby so dad and mom might pay non-public college charges

Rishi Sunak says he had to ‘go without’ Sky TV as a child so his parents could to pay his expensive private school fees. 

The premier said his GP father and pharmacist mother wanted to ‘put everything’ into their children’s education so having no satellite television was one of the things they sacrificed.  

Mr Sunak spent his teenage years at the now £52,000 a year distinguished Winchester College in Hampshire near his home in Southampton.

In the interview with ITV, which he left D-Day commemorations in Normandy early in order to attend, he is pressed on how he is able to stay in touch with the struggles of ordinary people when he is ‘wealthier than the king’. 

Journalist Paul Brand asks the PM if he ever had ‘go without something’ when he was a child, to which he replies: ‘I went without lots of things because my parents wanted to put everything into our education and that was a priority.’ 

Rishi Sunak says in an interview with ITV that he had to ‘go without’ Sky TV as a child so his parents could to pay his expensive private school fees

The premier said his GP father and pharmacist mother wanted to ‘put everything’ into their children’s education so having no satellite television was one of the things they sacrificed

Mr Sunak squirms and laughs as he is asked what sort of things his parents ‘sacrificed’.

‘Lots of things,’ he says. ‘There would have been all sorts of things I wanted as a kid.’

He appears uncomfortable as he laughs again before adding: ‘Famously Sky TV. That was something we never had growing up, actually. But there are lots of things. But again my experience is obviously going to be what my experience was. 

‘More important are my values and how I was raised. And I was raised in a household where hard work was really important. You had to work really hard. And family was important, service to your community was important.’ 

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’. 

The ITV interview airs tonight at 7pm and comes on the back of the PM’s grilling on a BBC Panorama special on Tuesday in which he begged the nation to forgive him for leaving the D-Day event early.  

Mr Sunak spent his teenage years at the now £52,000 a year distinguished Winchester College in Hampshire near his home in Southampton

Mr Sunak says he hoped that he ‘spoke to almost every one’ of the veterans who were in Normandy

Lord Cameron poses with Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Olaf Scholz and US President Joe Biden in Normandy after Rishi Sunak flew back to the UK, missing the international commemorations

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.’