The prime minister sincerely hopes, as he said last week, that we’ve “moved beyond judging people by what’s in their bank account.” Is that so? Attitudes to wealth and inequality are confusing and often inconsistent. But Sunak’s phenomenal fortune seems deeply unhelpful for his electoral prospects.
Those in his stratosphere have prospered exponentially, especially in the past decade, according to the latest Sunday Times rich list. Their gravity-defying golden era, untouched by the banking crash, Brexit or the pandemic, only this year suffered a blip. Sunak, the first prime minister to feature, and his wife, Akshata Murty, are listed at £529m, down from £730m last year. It’s hard to comprehend such numbers. The pair lost £500,000 a day – a day – for 12 months, yet even that is too little to touch lifestyles in this hyper-realm.
