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‘Proud’ Rishi Sunak welcomes criticism of his wealth

Chopper and Sunak - Geoff Pugh for the Telegraph
Chopper and Sunak - Geoff Pugh for the Telegraph

Rishi Sunak, Conservative leadership contender, has said he “welcomes” the criticism about his wealth, insisting that Tories should be proud of people who are successful.

The former chancellor also said that he was “doubling down” about wanting to “level up” parts of the south east of England with more Whitehall spending, and defended the Conservative Party against claims that it has a race problem.

Mr Sunak has been criticised for being out of touch during the cost of living crisis because of the scale of his wealth. A former hedge fund manager, he and his wife Akshata Murty joined this year’s Sunday Times Rich List, with a fortune of £730 million, while he is currently building a swimming pool next to his constituency home in Yorkshire.

However, in an interview with this weekend’s Chopper’s Politics podcast, Mr Sunak brushed off the sniping and insisted that “very few” members of the public raised his wealth when they met him.

He said: “I actually quite welcome it, to be honest. It is the opposite of annoying. Very few people bring it up with me. While I was chancellor I did ‘town hall’ [meetings] very regularly with just members of the public... virtually nobody asked me about it.

“They’ll ask plenty of other very difficult questions and personal questions, but they don’t ask about that.

“My story is a Conservative story. I’m a proud Conservative. As a party, our values are those where people who work hard and aspire to build something with their life and provide a better future for their children - those are values that we should champion.

“People who are successful, people who do well by working hard - the Conservative Party has got to be on their side.”

People did not care if he wore an expensive £3,500 suit at a leadership vote, or £490 Prada loafers to a building site, as he has done since the contest started.

“Values are what are important, what I’m wearing is irrelevant to all of that,” he said. “My values are that I want to always be on the side of people who are working really hard.”

Sunak - Geoff Pugh for the Telegraph
Sunak - Geoff Pugh for the Telegraph

There were also no complaints when, as chancellor, he wore the same suit to announce the Treasury’s furlough scheme to pay companies’ employees at the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020, before the cost of living crisis.

“When I stood up and announced furlough, which helped millions of people, particularly those on low incomes, I was wearing exactly the same suit that I’m now getting criticism for,” he said.

“I’m the same person, right? When I said there is going to be a real problem with energy bills this autumn and I want to make sure that we help particularly the most vulnerable, again, I was probably wearing the same thing because I only have the same suit. Values are what is important, what I’m wearing is irrelevant to all of that.”

Mr Sunak was unapologetic about his comments at a private hustings event in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, this month in which he said he had diverted government money from “deprived urban areas” to wealthier countryside towns.

“The point I was making is that levelling up is for everyone. So there are needs that need addressing in islands like the Isle of Wight in rural areas and places like Thanet in coastal communities, as well as in places like Darlington and Teesside,” he said.

“For me, levelling up is about everywhere, and everywhere has different needs. That’s the point I was making, which is why I haven’t walked back to those comments. I’m doubling down on what I believe.”

Mr Sunak insisted there was not a race problem in the Conservative Party, citing his own advancement in the party as evidence.

He said: “Of course not. We are literally living proof that, not just our party is not like that, but our country is not like that.

“It’s one of the most extraordinary, wonderful things about our country that someone like me with my family’s story could even be sitting here having this conversation with you. My grandparents emigrated here 60 years ago. They built a life for themselves.

I was Chancellor of the Exchequer. I wasn’t even the first ethnic minority chancellor. I was the second in a row [after Sajid Javid]. And there’s a third after me [Nadhim Zahawi]. And I’m in a race to be the leader of our party and Prime Minister of our country.”

Mr Sunak said he had already been upbraided by his teenage daughters Krishna and Anoushka for saying in an ITV interview that one of his favourite McDonald’s meals was a dish that has not been sold by the fast food chain for two years.

“My kids pointed out to me just proves how little time I spent with them. They said actually now they’ve moved on to these cheesy flatbreads which is fair enough, which now I do recognise,” he said.

Sunak and family - Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Sunak and family - Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

A huge fan of grilled chicken and broccoli at the Nando’s restaurant chain (“Who doesn’t love Nando’s?” he said), Mr Sunak paid tribute to Akshata for encouraging him to eat more vegetables.

“When I met her, I was an incredibly fussy eater and she’s vegetarian. And over time, I have come to eat many vegetables as a result of that,” he said.

Thoughts are already turning to what he might do if he wins. The Sunaks will move back to their flat above No 10 where they lived when he was Chancellor, rather than the more spacious No 11 flat recently controversially redecorated by designer Lulu Lyttle.

“We’ll probably just live in the flat that we used to live in. We lived there up until a month ago,” he said.

“It would be a bit odd to not just go back there because all the wallpaper that we did is still up in that flat. That’s where Mrs Thatcher lived. And that always gives me goosebumps every time.”

Despite lagging far behind Liz Truss in the polls, allies including Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, insisted that the former chancellor could upset the form guide, as voters did at the 2015 election and the 2016 EU referendum.

Mr Sunak, who has been touring constituencies and meeting members before the close of voting at 5pm on Friday, September 2, said: “It feels very different on the ground. That’s all I can say.

I’ve been around the country - twice it feels like - to almost 100 events, spoken to thousands of members. It doesn’t feel like the polls when I’m out and about, people respond really positively to the message.”

He insisted that he had not blown his chances by trying to appeal to the whole country, rather than more directly to the 160,000 Tory members voting in the ballot, as Ms Truss has done. “I’m trying to do both because I think that’s the right thing to do,” he said.

“I’m a Conservative through and through. And it’s a great privilege to talk to our members. I’m proud to be a member of the Conservative Party. Its values are my values.

“But it’s also right that I want to be prime minister of the United Kingdom for the whole country.”

Listen to the full interview with Rishi Sunak on Chopper's Politics, The Telegraph's weekly political podcast, using the audio player at the top of this article or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast app.