Five reasons why Rishi Sunak lost the UK Prime Minister election

New Delhi

After months of campaigning and hustings, the UK has a new Prime Minister and it is not former chancellor Rishi Sunak. The Tory leader was a clear favourite at the beginning of the election trail. However, somewhere along the way, Sunak lost the plot and surrendered the initiative to Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who never let go of the momentum. 

What were the reasons that Sunak and his popularity amongst the conservatives dived so steeply? WION takes a look and explores.

Tax laundering

One of the biggest thorns in Sunak's election campaign has been unfortunately his wife Akshata Murthy, the daughter of Indian billionaire and Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy.

According to a report by The Guardian, Rishi was forced to explain details about how he managed his family's fortune, which is said to total $840 million and has led to him being routinely referred to as the UK’s richest MP. The majority of Sunak's fortune were derived from his marriage to Akshata who owns a 0.93 per cent stake worth $794 million in Infosys.

Live updates | Liz Truss becomes new UK PM after beating Rishi Sunak

Reports of Akshata touted to be wealthier than British Queen Elizabeth II with assets worth $495 million, according to Sunday Times were not received well by the masses. 

Moreover, Akshata was able to save millions of pounds in tax on dividends, which were collected from her family's IT business. 

Last year, she earned a dividend payment worth 11.6 million pounds ($15.1 million) as she owns about 0.9 per cent of Indian IT giant Infosys. 

After the issue snowballed into a major controversy, Akshata agreed to pay more tax on foreign income. However, the damage had been done by then. 

Read more: British finance minister Rishi Sunak's wife agrees to pay more tax on foreign income

Sunak's tax cuts

One of the biggest policy decisions to turn the tide in Truss' favour was Sunak's opposition to not cutting taxes.  

However, his counterpart, Truss believes that tax cuts will lead to extra spending and tax revenues and rescue the economy. 

While Truss' populist measure of immediate tax cuts has not received the approval of the economists, it sure has increased her popularity amongst the conservative vote base. 

It was at this stage that Truss started to pull away from Sunak in the race. Sensing that the margin was widening, Sunak and his team took a volte-face and announced that if elected to power, he will reduce the basic rates of income tax by 20 per cent by 2029.  

Read more: Trailing in UK PM race, Rishi Sunak promises 'radical' 20% income tax cuts

Sunak stated that his immediate target was tackling inflation. However, once that is achieved, his government will slash one pence off income tax in 2024, as announced in his tenure as the chancellor. Afterward, another three pence will be struck off the income tax, come 2029. 

Additionally, Sunak pledged to scrap VAT on energy bills having vociferously opposed it for months.

The green card controversy 

While the Akshata Murthy tax laundering controversy had barely died down, Sunak was quickly left red-faced as reports emerged suggesting that Sunaks had retained their US green cards, even after returning to Britain. 

Top members of the Conservative Party dashed his hopes of becoming the PM by questioning his commitment to the UK. 

“He (Sunak) has shown colossal naivety and the way he has arranged his affairs does not suggest he is even committed to the UK, but that he is keeping open the option of a career in finance in the United States,” a senior Tory leader told The Observer.

It was only after much public and media pressure that Sunak confirmed he gave up the "green card" for the United States after he became Britain's finance minister.

Sunak's lavish lifestyle

As reported by WION, in July, Sunak visited a building site in Teesside, Northern England where he was spotted wearing $595 Prada suede loafers. 

The Conservative party leader was visiting Teesside to gather the support of Mayor Ben Houchen. However, more than the visit, it was Sunak's "pricey" loafers that grabbed the eyeballs.

Read more: Tory leader Rishi Sunak wears $595 Prada loafers on a visit to a building site

And this was not the first time that Sunak had garnered headlines for his expensive tastes. 

In 2020, as the Chancellor of the country, he was spotted using a $220 mug in the traditional pre-Budget photograph. 

Sunak didn't learn his lessons and came under fire last month as well for spending over $4,80,000 (£400,000) on a pool at his North Yorkshire property as UK residents braced for another heatwave and a rise in the cost of living.

Read more: UK: Rishi Sunak's opulent private pool amid rising cost of living sparks row

Sunak's aristocratic style

Similarly, when Sunak decided to run for the Prime Minister's job, a clip from a video documentary went viral on social media platforms where Sunak could be seen talking about his "aristocratic" friends. 

"I have friends who are aristocrats, I have friends who are upper-class, I have friends who are, you know, working-class. Well, not working class," Sunak said in the BBC documentary titled 'Middle Classes- Their Rise & Sprawl'. 

He further remarked in the clip, "I mix and match and then I go to see kids from an inner-city state school and tell them to apply to Oxford and talk to them about people like me. And then I shock them at the end of chatting to them for half an hour and tell them I was at Winchester and one of my best friends is from Eton or whatever. And then they're like, 'Oh OK'."

The video had brought a lot of flak for Sunak who was dubbed being as out of touch from reality.  Since then, Sunak and his PR team had attempted to change the narrative by selling him as the 'underdog'. 

(With inputs from agencies)

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