Rishi Sunak was “born to relatively humble beginnings”, according to a Tory MP backing him to be the next prime minister.
Sunak helped kick off the exodus of Conservative ministers abandoning Boris Johnson last week when he resigned as chancellor.
Now running to be Johnson’s successor, Sunak has already secured a list of Tory MPs who have announced their support for him, including Robert Jenrick, former housing secretary.
But, it seems they are out of touch with one of the main criticisms that’s been levelled at Sunak – his personal wealth.
Jenrick claimed on Monday that Sunak “was born to relatively humble beginnings”, and that he “got to where he got through hard work”.
The former chancellor was actually head boy at Winchester College, which describes itself as a “world famous, independent boarding school”.
When the next academic year begins, parents will have to pay £11,330 per term for their children to attend the day school.
Sunak went on to study at the University of Oxford, one of the world’s leading universities, and later took on an MBA at Stanford University, before becoming an investment banker at Goldman Sachs.
Sunak is considered the richest MP in parliament, with personal wealth of around £200 million. He and his wife also made the Sunday Times’ Rich List in May, with the combined wealth of £730 million.
And it was only earlier this year that Sunak became embroiled in controversy over his personal finances.
It was revealed that his multi-millionaire wife had a non-domicile tax status, meaning she was able to save millions in tax on any foreign earnings.
Akshata Murty, whose billionaire father founded the Indian IT services company Infosys, receives around £11.5million annually through her stake in the tech firm.
Once this information went public in April, Murty confirmed she would start paying UK taxes on a global income so that it wasn’t a “distraction for my husband”.
The news came shortly after Sunak, as chancellor, oversaw a huge tax hike for the every day worker by increasing National Insurance contributions.
Then it was revealed he still has his US green card up until 18 months into his time as chancellor, meaning he was a lawful permanent resident and is considered a “US tax resident for US income tax purposes”.
Neither of these findings meant Sunak had broken the ministerial code, but it did damage his reputation, and people have not forgotten.
So when Jenrick claimed Sunak is from “humble” beginnings, Twitter had a few things to say...
It’s worth noting that a clip which went viral over the weekend from 2001 shows Sunak, as a youth, on a BBC show called Middle Classes: Their Rise & Sprawl.
Sunak says in the seven second video: ”I have friends who are aristocrats, I have friends who are upper-class, I have friends who are working class – well, not working class...”