An emotional Rishi Sunak celebrated his one year anniversary as Chancellor of the Exchequer this weekend, posting a ‘how it started/ how it’s going’ tweet in a bid to pull on the heartstrings of his already smitten devotees.
The MP for Richmond was appointed into the position this time last year following the dramatic resignation of Sajid Javid, who walked after Boris Johnson demanded that he appointed special advisers to form a joint united for 10 and 11 Downing Street.
He arrived just 27 days before he had to deliver his first Budget and worked under terms which were described as a “power grab” by Dominic Cummings which made him “chancellor in name only”, or ‘Chino’.
Sunak’s first year has undoubtedly been a tough one as Covid-19 restrictions took their toll on an already beleaguered economy.
In August he launched an Eat Out to Help Out initiative designed to boost the economy following the effects of the national lockdown.
As a result, pubs and restaurants were able to offer discounted meals from Mondays-to-Wednesdays throughout August. Throughout the month, around 100 million meals were subsidised, at a cost of more than £500 million.
The move is thought to have underpinned a spike in infections which led to a second lockdown in November.
A University of Warwick study suggested a sharp increase in COVID-19 infection clusters emerged a week after the scheme began, and areas with a high uptake of Eat Out To Help Out saw a decline in new infection rates a week after the scheme drew to a close.
It suggests that between 8 per cent and 17 per cent of newly detected infection clusters could be linked to the economic measures.
This weekend Mr Sunak took to Twitter to celebrate his first year in Number 11.
But the humble ‘rags to riches’ story was quickly picked apart by people on social.
Here’s the best reactions so far:
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