Rishi Sunak has never before gone big on his personal life but the prime minister has obviously decided the electorate needs to get to know him and his family more before the next general election. Introducing the prime minister before his speech, his wife, Akshata Murty, tried to paint a picture of her “best friend” as a family man who likes romcoms and is “fun and compassionate”. After the glowing introduction, Sunak went into details about his own heritage, telling a story about his grandfather touring parliament, and addressed his background in a way he has rarely done before, saying he was proud to be the UK’s first British-Asian prime minister – but also proud that it wasn’t a big deal. “Never let anyone tell you this is a racist country: it is not,” he claimed, using his own experiences of growing up in Southampton in support of his point. Part of Sunak’s focus on himself and his own backstory appears to be an attempt to turn around his flagging personal poll ratings. While the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, is not exactly popular, Sunak is held in even worse regard. A word cloud created by market research company Savanta before the speech found people used words including “incompetent”, “rich” and “weak” in relation to the PM, as well as some coarser insults. Sunak seemingly tried to acknowledge his privilege and how lucky he was to grow up in a stable loving family, but there was no reference to his wife’s uber-wealth and certainly no mention of the controversies over her former tax-avoiding non-dom status and failed taxpayer-supported business venture. Sunak himself has previously said the country has “moved on” from caring about people’s bank balances and Labour has largely tried not to major on his moneyed lifestyle for fear of being accused of the politics of envy. But the scale of Sunak’s personal riches – multiple homes, a new swimming pool and trips to California – do seem to have stuck in the public imagination and raise questions about how much he can understand about the cost of living pressures facing families. His strategists think “using Akshata more” is a good way of humanising Sunak. But it also risks drawing more attention to their joint fortune, with Murty estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of pounds on account of her shares in the IT company founded by her billionaire father.
Political caution, however, seems to have been thrown to the wind since the arrival of new campaign strategists in Downing Street, led by Isaac Levido, who are relentlessly searching for dividing lines with Labour. While Starmer is in measured mode, with the election his to be lost, Sunak has shifted into a bolder gear both in terms of policy and his personal story. This is the “let Rishi be Rishi” strategy which has led him to junk the northern leg of HS2, scrap A-levels and cut back on net zero goals. He has also stated his views on trans rights in much stronger terms than before, claiming in his speech that people “can’t be any sex they want to be”. It adds up to the impression that Sunak is unleashing his long-held beliefs, cutting the projects he does not support and opting for reforms that he personally backs, such as overhauling education. But the speech did not show that he was addressing the biggest issues the country faces, the ones that come up most often in focus groups: the cost of living, crumbling public services and an NHS on the brink. It will most likely allow Labour next week to portray Sunak as being out of touch with the subjects that matter and failing to speak to the country rather than his own party. Sunak clearly feels the voters do not like him because they do not know him enough, and the prescription to remedy that is “more Rishi”. Yet there is a risk for the Tories that the PM’s own preoccupations and views on what is in the long-term interest of the public are too narrow to chime with voters.