To kick off the Conservative conference, Laura Kuenssberg gave Rishi Sunak a first look, on air, at a word cloud of responses from the public to the question: “What does Rishi Sunak stand for?” If you were building a reputation as a supervillain, the words looked great, but what about a prime minister? Unprecedented? Disastrous? “The Rich”, “Rich People”, “Rich” and “People” were four separate categories, by far the most ubiquitous; only “Money” and “Himself” came close. A few people knew he was a Conservative. There was an honourable mention of “wealth”, which is a little more courteous than “rich”, in so far as it’s not something you are, it’s something you have. Either way, one thing has cut through about the prime minister: he is really rich.
It did come up, when he first took office a year ago, that his immense riches might pose a problem for him, just in the day-to-day stuff. Traditionally, people like their politicians to know the price of milk and how to pour a pint. This was always quite an easy fix for our esteemed public servants, who could learn these details ahead of a leadership bid.
