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Voters believe Rishi Sunak is out-of-touch with their concerns and puts his own personal interests above those of the country, according to an exclusive new poll for Byline Times.
The Omnisis poll found that 65% of voters surveyed believe that the Prime Minister is “out-of-touch with the issues that concern people like me”, compared to just 19% who said he is in-touch with their concerns.
The poll also suggests that voters believe that the Prime Minister prioritises his own interests over the national interest. Just one in four surveyed said he prioritises the interests of the nation, compared to 56% who said he prioritises himself.
The findings come as Sunak comes under fire for his regular use of helicopters for visits that could easily otherwise be taken by train.
On Monday, he flew by RAF helicopter to deliver a speech in Dover about small boat crossings. The journey would have taken just one hour from central London by train.
Sunak was also criticised last month after taking a helicopter journey to his Yorkshire constituency, via a stop-off to meet a billionaire donor to the Conservative Party.
His spokesman said on Monday: “As always, travel plans will vary and are always decided with consideration to the best use of the Prime Minister’s time and in interests of the taxpayer.”
The row comes as a report suggests that Sunak and his wife donated $3 million in 2018 to an elite private US college to buy it a state-of-the-art computing laboratory, which was then named after the couple.
The huge donation received by the college, which was previously attended by Sunak’s wife Akshata Murthy, stands in stark contrast to one local state primary school in Sunak’s own constituency – which has been forced to hold repeated charity fundraisers to replace 15-year-old computers. The Prime Minister has reportedly donated a prize to the raffle at one such event.
Today’s poll suggests that voters are significantly more likely to say that Labour Leader Keir Starmer is in touch with their concerns, than the Prime Minister.
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However, while Starmer’s ratings are better than Sunak’s, voters are still divided over whether he has their interests at heart.
Overall, 41% of those polled by Omnisis said that he was out-of-touch with the concerns of people like them, compared to just 32% who said that he was in touch.
Forty per cent of all voters, and 20% of Labour voters surveyed, also said that Starmer prioritised his own interests over the country’s, compared to just 34% who said he prioritised the nation’s interests.