RISHI Sunak has claimed he went without “lots of things” as a child growing up in the UK, citing Sky TV as an example.
Speaking in an interview with ITV to be broadcast on Wednesday, the PM said lots of sacrifices were made by his parents as education was their priority.
When pressed on whether he had “gone without something” and how he ensured he was in touch with ordinary people, Sunak said his “family emigrated here with very little”.
🚨 NEW: Rishi Sunak has said he had to "sacrifice all sorts of things" as a child ITV: "Can you give me an example?" Suank: "All sorts of things... like lots of people, all sorts of things... famously Sky TV"pic.twitter.com/CKxEHxLzJF
— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) June 11, 2024
He added: “We went without lots of things. My parents wanted to put everything into our education and that was the priority.”
Sunak, who was educated at the private boarding school Winchester College in Hampshire, was pressed once again on "what sorts of things had to be sacrificed".
“Lots of things. All sorts of things like lots of people there’ll be all sorts of things that I would have wanted as a kid that I couldn’t have… famously Sky TV.
“That was something that we never had growing up actually. Lots of things but again that’s … my experience is obviously going to be what my experience was.
“What’s more important are my values and how I was raised and I was raised in a household where hard work was really important, service to your community was important.
“And my parents worked very hard for what they had and they wanted their kids to have a better life.”
The ITV interview with Paul Brand created quite the headache for Sunak, who left a D-Day event early to take part in the pre-recorded programme in a move that faced heavy criticism.
During the interview, the Tory leader apologised to Brand for his lateness and told him the “incredible” commemorations in Normandy “all just ran over”.
Commenting on the interview, the SNP candidate for Glasgow East David Linden said: “Yet again, Rishi Sunak has shown he is completely out of touch with families in Scotland, who have had to sacrifice a lot more than a Sky TV dish over the course of fourteen years of Westminster austerity cuts, Brexit and a cost of living crisis.
“It shows why it’s essential to vote SNP to get rid of this Tory government and put Scotland’s interests first.”
