Tetchy Rishi Sunak asked if he lies awake at night thinking about the poor
Tetchy Rishi Sunak was asked if he lies awake worrying about the poor as he was grilled about child poverty today.
The Prime Minister is appearing before the Commons Liaison Committee, whose members chair Parliament’s powerful select committees. He was questioned about the state of the economy, with inflation still raging at double the Bank of England’s target less than 12 months before the general election.
Labour MP Liam Byrne, a former Chief Secretary to the Treasury who chairs the Commons Business Select Committee, asked the PM: “This Christmas will see sales of luxury cars, private jets and superyachts hit an all-time high.
“Foodbanks in my constituency are now running out of food, we’ve got homelessness at record levels and last year four million people experienced destitution. Just tell us - do you ever lie awake at night worrying about the level of economic inequality in our country?”
Mr Sunak, who with heiress wife Akshata Murty is worth an estimated £529million, claimed: “No, I want to make sure that we can reduce economic inequality and spread opportunity - and I am pleased that we are making progress on that.” Earlier, the PM clashed with Scottish National Party MP Angus MacNeil who quizzed him about energy prices, the cost-of-living crisis and economic growth. The PM lost his rag, telling the Scotsman: “I’m just answering your question, which I think I am allowed to do.”
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Earlier this week, the Premier was forced to deny he was “tetchy” under pressure. Speaking to the committee, Mr Sunak also swerved saying whether he thought foodbank use would fall next year in the run-up to the general election.
During the 90-minute grilling he also faced tough questions over the controversial plan to deport Channel migrants to Rwanda. Public Accounts Committee chairwoman Dame Meg Hillier took the PM to task over the cost of the programme, which has already hit taxpayers for £240million with another £50m due in April.
She hit out at "secrecy" surrounding other areas of the costs of the deal. But Mr Sunak said: "It may well be that we want to have other conversations with other countries. But, again, it wouldn't be right to talk about these things if we're having private conversations with other countries about potential alternatives to add to our Rwanda policy."
He added: "It's absolutely right for what are commercially sensitive negotiations that there is a degree of ability for the Government to negotiate these things and then provide the appropriate level of transparency to Parliament which it is doing on an annual basis." The squirming Tory leader was also unable to say when the backlog of asylum claims would be cleared.
He had previously promised to clear it by the end of the year. But Mr Sunak insisted: "Well, we're not at the end of the year yet, so the final statistics haven't been published, but we are making very good progress."
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