Rishi Sunak doesn’t understand ‘real life issues’

We hit the streets of Liverpool’s Knowledge Quarter with a simple question: “does Rishi Sunak care about working people?”

The consensus among Scousers is clear. No, they don’t think it does. There were two key recurring themes in many people’s responses.

First-timers believe Sunak and other politicians are willing to look like they care about the people working to get elected.

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Paul Malloy of Ellesmere Port echoed this view.

In response to our question, the 51-year-old said: “Only when it’s time to vote, and even then, he only pretends to care about working people, so he’s going to throw us a bone here- there to convince. you vote for them.”

This sentiment was shared by Anca Carter, 27, a PhD at the University of Liverpool.

She said: “I think he cares about them if he can get their vote, but their government has been in power for a long time and we’re all a lot worse off.”

This belief was again shared by George James, of Sussex.

The 21-year-old student said: “I think he would like to give the public the perception that he cares, but the core group of voters he is appealing to is definitely not the working class.”

The second often common theme was the belief that the Prime Minister simply does not understand working people.

Luke Davies, from Aintree, said: “I think it’s difficult for him to understand the trials and tribulations of working-class people because he wasn’t brought up in that environment or around people like that.”

The 23-year-old continued: “He finds it hard to understand the real-life problems of people who work full-time but can’t make ends meet.”

Claims that Sunak cannot understand the struggles of working class people are based on the Prime Minister’s net worth of £651m.

This is almost 4000 times higher than the UK average according to Willfinda data.

Luke’s sentiment was shared by Sheona Mountford, 23, from Staffordshire, who referred to the Prime Minister’s claims that he had to “do without” growing up because his family did not have a Sky TV aerial.

She said: “He clearly doesn’t understand the struggles of the working class so how can he represent it and his policies certainly don’t help working class people.”

Another point raised by many people was the belief that Sunak is more concerned with winning the support of the rich and powerful in society.

Rachel Brock, 27, said: “He cares about himself, people who can influence him and people whose opinions benefit him, beyond that I don’t think he cares at all.”

That belief was shared by John Martin, 46, from Chester, who said Sunak was “all about making his friends rich”.

The lack of support for Sunak in the area comes as no surprise as the Labor Party is tipped to take all Merseyside constituencies for the first time in the upcoming general election on July 4.

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