Rishi Sunak Faces Flak Over Viral Video, Detractors Call Him ‘Liar’ Over Candidacy Announcement Date

A video has gone viral on social media where former UK finance minister Rishi Sunak, who has announced his bid for the UK prime minister, is seen saying he does not have working-class friends.

The video shared by a Twitter user named Kathryn Franklin from Huddersfield has now logged over three million views.

The video is a snippet from a BBC documentary shot in 2001.

The video is likely to tarnish the hardworking, immigrant-background and people’s leader image Rishi Sunak tried to portray with his Ready4Rishi campaign video.

“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 is heard saying in the edited clip. Though it may look like an honest admission, the British media and his detractors are likely to use this as a tool to hurt his chances.

Sunak and 10 others including his colleagues Penny Mordaunt, Liz Truss, Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt and six others have announced that they will run for the polls.

Meanwhile, Sunak is also facing opposition from within the Tories. A ‘dirty dossier’ of 424 pages is making rounds on Conservative Party’s WhatsApp groups which say have made personal attacks on Sunak, calling him a ‘schoolboy’ and a ‘liar’, saying he cannot be trusted on tax-related policies, the Times of India reported.

It also lashed out at Sunak for allegedly lying publicly regarding the legal non-domicile tax status of wife Akshata Murthy, who owns a small part of Indian tech giant Infosys.

There were also allegations against Sunak for backstabbing Boris Johnson after it was found by several news outlets that Sunak’s campaign website domain was registered in December last year.

People have also pointed out that the high-end video could not be put together with such edits in a short amount of time.

Some within Boris Johnson’s camp are determined to sabotage Sunak’s chances accusing him of treachery at a time Sunak needed support. They claim that Sunak’s resignation and announcement of candidacy were pre-planned.

Sunak, however, remains as one of the favorites in the race for No. 10 Downing Street. Other top contenders are Penny Mordaunt, who if elected, would be UK’s third female prime minister after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May – who were also from the Tories.

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