to not agree with people criticising sunak for the fact that his wife is richer than the queen

[MrsLargeEmbodied]

he is a tory,
he is not even labour

whether he and his wife are rich should not matter

1. The most recent criticism was because she part-owned a firm that was continuing to do significant business in Russia, not just because she is wealthy.

1. If he were very wealthy but actively trying to advance policies that would help poor people, I wouldn't care. But he's advancing a political economy that further enriches people like him, and his wife, while cutting benefits for the poorest in England.

1. Maybe I would care, a little, because he's full of disingenuous bullshit about how he "understands" the condition of the poor. No he doesn't. Nor do I, for the record. But I don't pretend that I do, and when I exercise my imagination, I do it with empathy rather that to dream up new ways to cut taxes for wealthy people.

I have no problem that he is richer than my wildest dreams. He seems like a fairly decent person who wants to understand but when he was LBC a few weeks ago talking to to people who are truly suffering and rather than just admit that he is lucky that he has no clue about how to relate to the situations, or understand how it feels to be so broke and have just more things piling on he insisted that he understood-he would have won far more credibility if he admitted the truth and said he wants to learn and that is why he was talking to the public.

He also grew up elements privileged the school he went to Winchester costs £42,000 a year to go to. As an MP alone he couldn't afford to send his two kids. To try and act like he's a man of the people is absolute bollocks. He will never have had to make a decision in his life based on money. He most certainly would never have to consider about whether to turn on the heating or to eat a meal.

Starmer went to a grammar school and oxford
I don't see how Keir Starmer's educational background is relevent to Rishi Sunak's wives investments. But Keir Starmer was not from a wealthy background. His mother was a nurse and his father a toolmaker. He went to Leeds university and was the first member of his family to get a degree. He did an MA at Oxford.

most mp's went to oxford, let alone eton

@MrsLargeEmbodied

he is a tory, he is not even labour

whether he and his wife are rich should not matter

He never will be in labour.

He's male.

His wife is irrelevant.

He's an awful and incompetent Chancellor, screwed up the Covid support, screwed up NIC, screwed up VAT on hospitality. Screwed up due to lack of checks on covid business loans. Everything he has touched, he's screwed up. He really hasn't a clue.

Everyone used to mock Philip Hammond by calling him "Spreadsheet Phil" but at least he tried to understand the policies he had to decide on, unlike Sunak who doesn't give a toss and only cares about political point scoring to try to become MP.

I don’t understand how he messed up paying for a coke and petrol at the petrol station. Surely no-one is rich enough to not pay for their own stuff, bar the most senior royals. He must have felt under pressure and just got momentarily confused.
I admit it wasn’t a good look but it was just a mistake.

the response about Starmer's education is a reaction to @PastMyBestBeforeDate who commented starmer didnt go to a public school and knows what life is for ordinary people

YABVU for deliberately misrepresenting the reason for the criticism.

And your response was silly. His parents did normal jobs and he didn't go to public school.

He won't have to worry about the gas bill at the moment, I think I read that he and family have gone to their holiday home In California for Easter.

I have to say I agree somewhat.. she isn’t an mp and I think criticising her is unreasonable- she owns a decent share of an enormous company, of which she has little say over. This huge, global company will have complex contracts. If you go by this logic, another mps spouse who has some minor conviction or does anything slightly unpalatable according to the public would be up for debate. You can’t really do that- he doesn’t control her. I think that if there’s criticism then you should be able to say what you expect her to do. She is hardly going to give up shares in a family founded company because her husband is an mp.
He should have, however, worded his answer a bit better and said he does want all companies to be mindful of money and Russia, or that it was part of a familial conversation..

Where is your evidence that most MPs went to Oxford?
Besides even if true I don't see how that is relevant to Rishi Sunak's investments or his wife's business's links to Russia.

@NOTANUM

I don’t understand how he messed up paying for a coke and petrol at the petrol station. Surely no-one is rich enough to not pay for their own stuff, bar the most senior royals. He must have felt under pressure and just got momentarily confused. I admit it wasn’t a good look but it was just a mistake.

Momentarily confused? Don't be daft.

He won't know, because he's never had to do it.

He will have had people doing his bidding for years. A literal staff of people making, doing, buying, smoothing his life so he doesn't have to.

@PastMyBestBeforeDate

And your response was silly. His parents did normal jobs and he didn't go to public school.

a grammar school?

isnt that public?

many many people will not be worrying about the gas bill

sunak's father was a GP and his mother a pharmacist

anyway
i agree with above - and this is what i am trying to say

His Wife is irrelevant.

YABU

It matters because it shows just how out of touch he is. While ordinary people are worried about whether they can buy petrol to get to work to earn money that they then have to decide whether to spend on food or heating their home. He probably believes everyone can just tighten their belt a bit because he has absolutely no concept that for many people years of Tory austerity has meant they’re already at their absolute limit. And this man is in charge of how much support is given to people desperately struggling when he is as far removed from them as it’s possible to be.

Personally, I see being financially successful as an asset for anyone involved in overseeing the country's finances.

Though I'm not especially interested in how his wife did or didn't make her fortune.

so how much money would be ok for an MP and their spouse to earn to understand the worry about pay cuts?

@SilverGlitterBaubles

YANBU the criticism was about the hypocrisy of the government's stance on Russia imposing sanctions while his wife still had significant business links there. They have obviously taken onboard the criticism because apparently her companies dealing with Russia is now ending. Also some serious questions need to be asked about the billions funnelled to private companies during Covid and things like bounce back loans that were widely abused due to lack of scrutiny and they have written off. We are now told there is no money when we need help most. So yes he deserves all the scrutiny because he has mismanaged public funds and now we are all suffering.

This.

It isn’t about how much personal wealth Rishi and his wife have, it’s about whether they have competence and integrity.

Russia has had a shocking amount of influence on politicians and news organisations, particularly those that lobbied for Brexit. It’s almost as if Russia was trying to divide and weaken Europe (in the same way that Trump divided and weakened America) in the run up to the invasion of Ukraine. It’s as if Putin has been planning this for a long time 🧐

Any politicians or their relatives in Europe and America who have accepted large quantities of Russian money deserve to be under scrutiny right now.

(Also, anyone who came up with ‘eat out to help out’ in the middle of a pandemic should perhaps not be in charge of anything too complicated.)

@bigbluebus

Listening to him talk about the multiple different types of bread they buy to suit the whole family's tastes when some people would be grateful to get a value white sliced loaf just shows how out of touch he is!

I have swapped from the 45p loaf in aldi to the 36p one. I will admit to having a loaf of 36p brown bread in the freezer especially for me and my eldest who sometimes likes brown toast. I thought I was quite posh actually, we only ever had white growing up.

@Neverreturntoathread
agree with what you are saying -