Most Mirror readers think Prime Minister Rishi Sunak simply cannot relate to regular people.
Following his infamous gaff where he grumbled about not having Sky TV as a child, we asked readers if they felt the PM was out of touch with the public – and a whopping 95.2 per cent of voters thought he was.
During a 30-minute exchange on ITV’s Tonight, presenter Paul Brand asked Mr Sunak if he had ever gone without something. “Yes, I mean, my family emigrated here with very little. And that’s how I was raised. I was raised with the values of hard work,” Mr Sunak replied.
Pushed on what he’d gone without as a child, the PM said: “Oh, we went without lots of things because my parents wanted to put everything into our education and that was a priority.” But when asked what sort of things had to be sacrificed, he could only say: “Lots of things.” He then laughed.
As Mr Brand pressed him to give an example, he said: “All sorts of things like lots of people. There’ll be all sorts of things that I would’ve wanted as a kid that I couldn’t have.” He added: “Famously, Sky TV, so that was something that we never had growing up actually.”
Mr Sunak, 44, attended one of the country’s most expensive boarding schools, Winchester College. He and his wife Akshata Murty are the richest inhabitants of Downing Street in history. Their combined £651million fortune put them above the King on the list of the wealthiest people in the country. It is driven largely by Ms Murty’s stake in Infosys. an Indian IT company her father founded.
‘One thing he clearly did not go without – arrogance’
Hundreds of you commented on our original story, here’s what just some of you had to say:
Zorna psted: “What a shame. Poor boy. My family didn’t have electricity until I was moving out.”
Renta: “He would not have lasted a week living how we had to live and millions like us. Parents working all hours just to feed and clothe us. Sharing an outdoor toilet with other family, washing in a tin bath once a week. Working people pawning stuff to live … and he says he was deprived.”
Not a tory: “My heart bleeds for him. Anyone else remember the hand-me-downs or clothes from jumble sales? The food? Or lack of it? And surely other people had to put cardboard in the soles of their shoes when a hole appeared?”
Jane Powell: “One thing he clearly did not go without – arrogance.”
Lala10: “Either this man has no advisors whatsoever or they are as completely out of touch and clueless as he is.”
Usnotthem: “Given his parents’ professional positions during his childhood, poor ‘deprived’ Rishi was raised in the upper middle-class, and as such he can’t possibly have a clue what deprivation actually is. Get him working a minimum wage job for a few months and let him see what going without really is. Let him see what it’s like to be forced to choose between either staying warm or eating something other than cheap, unhealthy, overly-processed garbage masquerading as food; that would put his whining about not having a subscription TV service as a child into perspective for him!
N12345: “How utterly devastating for him, and he wants our votes. Not getting mine.”
Loreli: “So out of touch it is alarming”.
Lady: “If that’s going without, he has never gone without …”
Dabz14: “I can’t afford to heat my home any more, can’t afford to shower every day, don’t go out with friends any more. I work full time and I earn a better wage than most. Plus Truss knocked 40 per cent off my pension pot, so I can’t even look forward to a decent pension any more. My heart bleeds for Rishi the rich.”
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