Rishi Sunak looks to have an uphill battle ahead of him to become the UK’s next prime minister. As he vies with Liz Truss for Conservative members’ votes in the contest to replace Boris Johnson, here are 10 things you might not know about the former chancellor:
In 2016 he told children at a Northallerton primary school that the job he wanted most when he was growing up was to be a Jedi knight. It is not known if he ever wrote “Jedi” into the census just in case, but it is known that he went to see Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker with his then boss at the Treasury, Sajid Javid.
<p lang=«en» dir=«ltr» xml:lang=«en»>Great night out with the boss — Jedi Master @sajidjavid #TheRiseOfSkywalker pic.twitter.com/NrP4yQTmzKHis favourite film among the Star Wars canon is The Empire Strikes Back, although he has also been known to sing the praises of the cinematography of the last half-hour of Revenge of the Sith – the bit where Anakin goes mad and starts slaughtering people left, right and centre with his lightsaber.
In 1997 Sunak was already a committed Conservative and was dismayed when Tony Blair became prime minister. He wrote in his school magazine complaining that Blair “revels in the label of a patriot, but has plans for the possible breakup of the United Kingdom and membership of an eventual European Superstate. Already the New Labour rhetoric sounds worryingly pro-European and avid pro-Europeans are being sent to Brussels.”
Once known for his wizard free-kicks, and now mostly known for his somewhat eccentric views on Twitter, Southampton’s Matt Le Tissier was Sunak’s football hero growing up during the 90s. Le Tissier famously stayed at Southampton throughout his senior career, which was Sunak’s team. The former chancellor
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