Rishi Sunak: I’m not narcissistic, I’m just new to politics

UK chancellor has been accused of pushing his credentials to be the next prime minister

Rishi Sunak denied he is narcissist and vying for the prime minister's job. AFP

Rishi Sunak has rejected an assertion that government advertising campaigns with his face and signature on it are "narcissistic", claiming he is new to politics and wants people to know who he is.

The UK chancellor was asked why no one else in the Cabinet but the prime minister takes such a personal approach to branding.

The slick messaging has won praise with the public who resonated with popular schemes such as Eat Out to Help Out but fuelled speculation of a rift at the top of government as Boris Johnson’s popularity went on a downward trajectory.

In a round of media interviews this morning, Mr Sunak denied he was “narcissistic” and insisted he fully supported the prime minister.

However, he appeared to accept many of his colleagues did not have the same communication strategy.

He told Sky News: "I'm very new to politics in that sense. Most people didn’t know who I was before I had this job.

"My job is to make sure that everyone in this country understands what I’m doing on their behalf.

"That’s easier for them to do if they know who I am.

"I’m going to try lots of different ways to communicate with people. I want people to know what we’re up to.

"If people feel they know who’s doing it, it’s going to make for a much more informed debate."

Asked whether he wanted to be prime minister, Mr Sunak said: "I think the job I have is hard enough, and I see up close what the prime minister has to deal with every day, it's not an envious task, I think he does it admirably well.

"These are very difficult times, I'm grateful that we have his leadership, I think the country should be very grateful for that as well."

He also hit back at suggestions Eat Out to Help Out contributed to a spike in new coronavirus cases.

At the weekend, Mr Johnson said that the initiative — which paid people up to £10 ($13) per person for a meal in a restaurant in a bid to boost the hospitality sector — might have helped the transmission of the disease.

Mr Sunak did not see a cause-and-effect relationship.

He added that incidence of the virus has been lower in areas like the south-west of England, where there was significant take-up of the offer.

The chancellor said: “I would be, I guess, cautious about jumping to simplistic conclusions.

“It’s incredibly difficult to pinpoint at such a granular level exactly the cause of transmission.”

Asked about tax rises, Mr Sunak repeatedly stressed that jobs were the short-term focus but made it clear that he would have to tackle Britain's debt mountain in the medium term.

"Obviously this can't carry on forever. This level of borrowing, which will be record levels, pretty much, this year, is not sustainable in the long run," he told the BBC.

"Once we get through this I think people should rightly expect us to make sure we have a strong set of public finances."

Mr Sunak's emergency spending measures, including subsidies to slow a jump in unemployment, will cost about £200 billion this year and have already pushed public debt over £2 trillion ($2.60 trillion), or 100 per cent of gross domestic product.

Borrowing crunch

The chancellor yesterday warned of the damage higher interest rates could do given the huge size of the UK’s debt.

The government's flagship wage support programme is due to expire at the end of this month and will be replaced by a less generous subsidy scheme.

The Office for Budget Responsibility forecast in July that unemployment would peak at 11.9 per cent in the final quarter of 2020 under its central economic scenario, equivalent to just over 4 million people, before averaging 3.5 million in 2021.

In a more negative scenario, unemployment would average four million through 2021.

While Mr Sunak has refused to rule out tax increases, experts say he is unlikely to focus on shrinking the budget deficit quickly, given the parlous state of the economy.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said the time to pay for the jump in spending triggered by the pandemic is unlikely to come in 2021.

Mr Sunak also said on Tuesday the government would stick to its so-called "triple lock" for setting increases in state pensions which could jump next year because of calculation distortions caused by the coronavirus crisis.