Rishi Sunak may be the most powerful man in the UK, but when it comes to being personable, much like his trousers, he comes up short.
Whether he’s trying to pay for petrol at the pump, bragging about his ‘Mexican Coke’ addiction or modelling his choice of leisurewear, he always looks like a man who is failing to play a role his advisors have written for him.
Wednesday morning was no exception, as he appeared on Nick Ferrari’s LBC Breakfast show to take questions from Nick and his listeners.
Now it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a Tory minister is out of touch with the general population, but with an election looming and the Tories getting battered in the polls, if Sunak wants to be taken even a little bit seriously, it’s time he acted like a human.
If being relatable is an art, Rishi’s performance was a paint-by-numbers canvas, and he barely stayed within the lines.
Firstly say your parents worked in the NHS. Then talk about your daughters, and finally, tell them you love Star Wars.
On the surface, three very pleasant and likeable traits. But when served time and time again by the one-time Wagamama’s waiter and you-could-have-a-future-in-cyber robot Rishi, it doesn’t take too much deconstruction to damage their relatability.
Yes, Rishi, we know your mum and dad were a GP and pharmacist, and you used to work in their shop. But mentioning this only highlights the disdain with which you treat workers within our National Health Service.
You’ve admitted to using a private GP, while hundreds of thousands of people are waiting months if not years to have life-changing operations that have been delayed by your party’s inability to properly fund the NHS.
The simple fact is, someone who is worth hundreds of millions of pounds can never be a man of the people
When questioned by a junior doctor during the phone-in as to why he refused to negotiate a better pay deal with striking doctors, he bizarrely accused them instead of causing waiting lists to go up.
While it’s true that strike days have led to around 100,000 delayed appointments, that pales in comparison to the total of 7.47 million people waiting for treatment.
The Queen’s funeral bank holiday also led to thousands of hospital and GP appointment cancellations but I doubt we’ll see Sunak getting angry at her late Majesty for dying.
Sunak talking about his daughters might be an attempt to remind people of Barack Obama, who often put his children front and centre of speeches.
Except Obama fought for his daughter’s futures by setting up the Clean Power plan to reduce carbon emissions by 32% by 2030 (though sadly repealed by Trump), meanwhile Sunak just gave the green light to the not-so-green 100 new oil and gas licences in the North Sea while insisting that his girls were not eco-zealots.
Sunak shared that he recently took his daughters to see the Barbie film, but rather than praise the film’s comments on modern patriarchy and feminism, which would have resonated with plenty of his audience, when asked what he thought of the film he described it as ‘very pink’ and ‘good escapism’.
Top analysis.
Speaking of female culture and escapism, when recently asked by woman of the people Alison Hammond about his favourite books, he confirmed that he liked to read raunchy Jilly Cooper novels. Nothing screams ‘focus group’ like a Tory politician aligning himself with incongruous pop culture references.
Telling people you love Star Wars is all well and good, but as the leader of a party that consistently acts in the best interests of the wealthy to the detriment of the poor, he probably didn’t understand the plot.
He knows Darth Vader is the baddie, right?
The simple fact is, someone who is worth hundreds of millions of pounds can never be a man of the people, no matter much you stage manage him.
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Even as a 21-year-old, Rishi admitted to not having any working class friends.
But over the next 18 months, in the run up to the general election, we are bound to be subjected to more of Rishi’s failed attempts to appear normal, reasonable and chill – and it doesn’t look good.
While Starmer’s media performance leaves a lot to be desired (he floundered when a young person publicly challenged him on his green policies as he was delivering a speech on the importance of young people using their voice), but he clearly displays more empathy than Sunak.
I’ve heard Nick Ferrari interview dozens of politicians on his radio breakfast show, but never have I heard someone ignore his repeated cues to wrap things up as much as Rishi Sunak.
The PM desperately wants to be heard on his terms and when he doesn’t get what he wants, he comes across as petulant and arrogant.
His advice to a man in his thirties whose mortgage payments had almost doubled from £1500 a month to £2800 because of spiralling interest rates? ‘Speak to your bank’.
Solid advice. 10/10. Bet he hadn’t thought of that already. It reminds me of the time he asked a homeless man in a soup kitchen if he worked in business.
Rishi’s not a natural public speaker at the best of times (think back to the Sunak v Truss leadership contest when he was literally mistaken for a cardboard cut-out), but any politician hoping to win a General Election has to be ready to think on their feet, respond well to unscripted moments and generally appear human to empathise with members of the public.
But with the election thought to be less than a year away, increasingly bad polling, and Rishi Sunak already squirming at a straightforward phone-in, still reeling off his relatable-by-numbers answers, he could be in serious trouble.
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