Voters perceive new PM Rishi Sunak as ‘rich’, polling shows

Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty appeared on this year’s Sunday Times Rich List, with a fortune of £720million

Voters perceive new prime ministerRishi Sunak as “rich”, “good” and “capable”, according to new polling.

The word cloud, published by SavantaRes, also highlighted other positive associations such as “capable”, “clever” and “reliable” and “smart”

However it was not all plain sailing for the new inhabitant of No 10 as negative words such as “slimy”, “bad” and “snake” also loom large on the graphic.

The word “rich” appearing as the most prominent word associated with Mr Sunak is unsurpising considering that alongside his wife, Akshata Murty, he appeared on this year’s Sunday Times Rich List, with a fortune of £720million.

Prior to becoming an MP Mr Sunak worked as a investment banker at Goldman Sachs and also spent time as a hedge fund manager.

But the bulk of the couple’s wealth is driven by Ms Murty’s stake in Infosys, a company founded by her father, Indian billionaire Nagavara Murthy.

Ms Murty became embroiled in a scandal earlier this year when it was reported by The Independent that she been claiming non-dom status in the UK.

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She eventually agreed to pay taxes on all her worldwide income, saying she did not want to be a “distraction” for her husband.

It comes as Mr Sunak completed a daring political comeback to become the next PM after rival Penny Mordaunt dropped out.

Rishi Sunak, aged 42, is the youngest British prime minister for more than a century (Press Association Images)

The former chancellor won the support of Conservative MPs to succeed Liz Truss as Tory leader on Monday and will enter Downing Street less than two months after he lost the last race.

Mr Sunak will be the UK’s first Hindu prime minister, the first of Asian heritage, and the youngest for more than 200 years at the age of 42.

Ms Mordaunt, the Commons Leader, bowed out of the race as she failed to get the 100 nominations from Tory MPs required by the 2pm deadline.

Mr Sunak is unlikely to face a long honeymoon period as the country faces an economic crisis and the Tory party is currently trailing Labour in the polls by the largest gap in 25 years.