LondonDec.24 – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faced criticism on Saturday for not reaching out to ordinary people after he asked a homeless man at a charity if he was “in business” and wanted to enter the financial sector.
Sunak, a former Goldman Sachs banker and one of Britain’s richest people, was serving breakfast at a homeless shelter in London on Friday when he started chatting to a man who identified himself as Dean.
At one point in the conversation, the prime minister asked the man: “Are you in business?” , and handed him a plate of sausage, toast and eggs.
“No, I am homeless. I am really homeless,” the man replied.
Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the opposition Labor Party, tweeted an excerpt from the exchange, calling it “intolerable”, while another Labor MP, Bill Estersson, called Sunak “out of touch”.
His rise to the post of British Prime Minister in October made Sunak the richest occupant of 10 Downing Street as the country grapples with a cost of living crisis.
On Friday, the Prime Minister’s Office said the prime minister made surprise phone calls to British diplomats and soldiers around the world to wish them Christmas greetings.
His awkward exchange with the homeless man begins when the man asks Sinek if he is “fixing the economy”.
When the homeless man told him he was interested in money and business, Snack told him he also worked in finance, before asking, “Would you like to do that?”
Dean replied, “Yeah, I don’t mind.” “But, I don’t know, I’d like to have Christmas first.”
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