We are talking about the prime ministerRishi Sunak and his wife: the lady has in fact just let herself be photographed on the street with £570 slippers on his feet (about 65o euros), on his way back from school where he had accompanied his two daughters. To complete the “modest†JW Anderson shoes, there were also a pair ofi leggings from 130 pounds (150 euros)from a brand, Alo Yoga, that prides itself on being ‘celebrity endorsed’.
It’s not exactly there mise that would be expected of a power couple who wanted to show themselves close to the people. But on the other hand the Sunaks are nabobs, e also repeat offenders: with their personal fortune estimated at 730 million pounds (830 million euros) they are richer even than King Charlesand he is easily the most wealthy British prime minister in history.
Not that there is anything bad in itself: but the problem is that the couple shows that they are completely disconnected from the real world and its problems. In fact, Sunak’s appearance in a dusty construction site wearing fine Prada loafers costing 490 pounds (over 550 euros) had aroused hilarity; and he had been teased by a former conservative minister for showing up in a 4,000-euro dress. Worse was when he wanted to be photographed busy at his desk: it had not escaped that in front of him there was a 200-euro cup, a technological devilry that keeps the coffee at a constant temperature for three hours. And remaining on the subject, once Mrs. Sunak had left the house to offer tea and biscuits to the journalists camped opposite: she alone that she had done it using precious collector’s cups.
These details are not frivolities: they are a political issue. Because if Boris Johnson – even though he came out of Eton and Oxford – managed to make himself perceived as an easy-going joker, able to connect with the deep layers of public opinionSunak appears as a technocrat who came down from another planet, one who when he met a homeless man asked him “are you in business?”.
The magazine too flavorswhen he dedicated a cover profile to his wife, albeit sympathetic, he could not help but title it “the chatelaine of Downing Street”: on the other hand, she is the daughter of an Indian billionaire who, it turned out embarrassingly last year, he didn’t even pay taxes in Britain (thanks to a legal but questionable exemption system). And Sunak himself, until last year, held the green card americana, that is, the permanent residence permit: which means that, although he was a politician in London, he actually kept one foot on the other side of the ocean for security.
How to recover more than 20 points behind Labor with someone like this is a problem that the Conservatives are asking.