Rishi Sunak goes on painful round of interviews after Spring Statement backlash
They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity – but Rishi Sunak’s performance on media rounds this morning may beg to differ.
The multi-millionaire chancellor was sent on the airwaves to defend his Spring Statement after being accused of failing to cushion the public from the biggest fall in living standards since the 1950s.
He was left squirming and looking visibly uncomfortable as he was confronted over his affluent lifestyle, his wife’s links to Russia and what type of bread he likes to eat in a series of car-crash interviews.
Viewers branded him tone deaf after he said ‘I can’t solve everyone’s problems’.
The finance minister, whose personal wealth is estimated to be £200m, is also being ridiculed over a photo-stunt in which he filled up the tank of a Kia Rio he borrowed from a Sainsbury’s worker, in an apparent bid to look relatable.
One particularly excruciating moment saw him claiming to have noticed the 20p rise of his favourite Hovis loaf when asked what food item he’s noticed going up the most in the supermarkets.
When the presenter said for her it was crisps, he laughed, and replied: ‘It’s probably, I think bread, probably is the thing. The one we buy I’m sure is now about £1.20 and it was about £1, from memory.’
Asked what kind of bread, he replied: ‘It’s a Hovis kind of seeded thing.
‘We have a whole range of different – we all have different breads in my house, a degree of healthiness between my wife, myself and my kids,’ he told BBC Breakfast.
The joke enraged viewers, with some pointing to comments made by the boss of Iceland yesterday that people using food banks are turning down potatoes because they cannot afford the cost of boiling them.
One person tweeted: ‘How tone deaf are you? Sunak just told you about the range of bread they have in the rich peoples house and you think it’s funny. Many people can only afford cheap sliced white bread [which] isn’t at all funny.’
The chancellor’s morning didn’t improve as he was then grilled by Good Morning Britain’s Ranvir Singh about his ‘millionaire’s lifestyle’ following backlash over his Spring Statement.
Mr Sunak has faced widespread criticism for failing to do enough to help struggling families as the UK braces for the biggest fall in living standards for 70 years due to soaring inflation.
The Resolution Foundation, a living standards think tank, said the lack of support for low-income families now leaves 1.3 million people – including 500,000 children – on the verge of ‘absolute poverty’.
Ranvir said: ‘Some people this morning are questioning why it is that the average worker is having a higher tax burden and yet millionaires and the oil companies aren’t bearing the same burden as they are proportionately.
‘And some people are now questioning whether you are the right man for the job. You have a millionaire’s lifestyle. And some people are saying, actually, you are out of touch with the truth of how this is going to hurt’.
Mr Sunak responded: ‘I think you’ve put that same question to me before and I guess what I’d say to people is judge me by my actions.’
He went on to list the support schemes available during the coronavirus pandemic before insisting the new measures announced yesterday – such as a 5p cut in fuel duty and a rise in the national income tax threshold – will help the poorest in society.
But he said he can’t ‘solve every problem’, pointing out global factors have contributed to the squeeze on incomes.
He said: ‘I’ve always been honest and open with the country about the ability of any chancellor [let alone] me to solve every problem, particularly when we’re grappling with global challenges that are challenging all sorts of countries in a similar way.’
Mr Sunak doubled down on that stance in another awkward interview on Sky News. He said the UK is recovering from its biggest shock in 300 years due to the pandemic, and he is doing what he can.
The interview took a particularly painful turn when his wife’s links to Russia were brought into question.
The cabinet minister has told UK firms to ‘think carefully’ about investing in Russian ventures that would benefit Putin as the government imposes sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
Mr Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murthy, is the daughter of Indian billionaire Narayana Murthy, estimated to be worth around £3.1 billion.
She holds a stake in her father’s firm Infosys, which is reported to operate in Moscow and have links to a major Russian bank. The company also has four offices in the UK.
Quizzed about the reports on Sky News, Sunak was asked by host Jayne Secker: ‘Are you giving advice to others that you are not following in your own home?’
He replied: ‘I’m an elected politician and I’m here to talk to you about what I’m responsible for. My wife is not.’
The disastrous round of interviews did not go unnoticed.
It comes after the chancellor was savaged for an ‘out-of-touch’ photo op at a gas pump yesterday to promote the treasury’s temporary fuel duty cut.
The chancellor was pictured pumping petrol into a Kia Rio – worth about £12,000 – outside a Sainsbury’s.
He was ridiculed for bungling his contactless payment, by pressing the card to a barcode scanner.
And many did not believe that the chancellor – a former banker – drives a modest family hatchback.
It emerged today that the Kia car used for the photo-shoot belonged to a Sainsbury’s employee, though it is understood Mr Sunak paid for the petrol from his own pocket.
The chancellor was roundly mocked on social media as pretending to be ‘a man of the people’.
Attempts to claw back any dignity took a further hit when he was confronted on LBC by a worried single mother working two evening jobs to provide for her kids.
Telling the chancellor that she’s resorted to keeping the boiler and every light possible off, and wearing coats and jumpers to keep warm, she said measures to help on energy bills ‘isn’t going to cut it’, and asked: ‘Please tell me what else I can be doing!’.
In response, a visibly uncomfortable looking Mr Sunak said he ‘cannot imagine how difficult’ her job was, and paid tribute to her for ‘working your socks off’.
He pointed to the energy bill rebate and higher National Insurance threshold that will give a tax cut in July.
However, critics say the ‘illusionist’ chancellor is actually raising taxes on Brits to the highest level since Clement Attlee after the Second World War.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said soaring inflation and frozen income tax thresholds will leave Brits worse off – despite fuel duty and National Insurance cuts in the Spring Statement, and the promise of a 1p income tax cut in 2024.
A median earner on £27,500 will be £360 worse off in 2022/23 than in 2021/22 – and a £40k earner will be nearly £800 worse off, the IFS said, as it branded the chancellor ‘something of a fiscal illusionist’.
Research also suggests the 5p cut to fuel duty will only knock £3 off the cost of a 60-litre tank for a family car. The Resolution Foundation said it’ll save the typical driving household £75 a year.
Even if garages pass it on in full, it will only reverse 13% of the rise in pump prices over the last year.
Petrol prices have gone up 5p in seven days, so the big tax cut takes us back to…. last week.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.