Rishi Sunak has said that voters do not care about how much money is in his bank account amid questions over whether his wealth makes him out of touch.
The Prime Minister, who with his wife Akshata Murty has an estimated net worth of £529 million, faced questions during a set of broadcast interviews about whether his wealth made it difficult for voters to connect with him.
Mr Sunak told Times Radio that the public did not care about his wealth but wanted leaders who instead make a “difference” amid cost-of-living pressures.
“I think what people want from their prime ministers and their leaders is to do things that are going to make a difference to their lives,” he said.
“I don’t think people are as interested in how much money is in my bank account. They’re interested in what I’m doing for them.”
He said that the recent decision to ease the shift away from gas boilers and petrol and diesel cars was a “great example of that”.
A word cloud on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg recently suggested that the main thing the public thought about him was he was “rich”.
Mr Sunak’s wealth makes him one of the richest men ever to become prime minister but it has seen critics and opponents argue that he has little understanding of the pressures on ordinary voters battling inflation.
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “The thing that people want from me is to make a difference to their lives and when I first got this job I set out five priorities that I was going to focus on for the country – the first of those was to halve inflation.”
He added: “That was the first and most important priority I set out because I know things are difficult and the biggest impact I’ve had on people’s lives is to bring the rate of inflation down and the good news is we’re making progress.
“Of course I know things are tough for people right now, but I’m going to make sure we stick to the plan, the plan is working.”
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