RISHI Sunak has been branded as untrustworthy as Boris Johnson and “just dripping with vanity” after a lengthy and often tetchy TV interview.

The Prime Minister was accused of being a “mendacious, narcissistic sociopath” after doing a 20-minute interview with the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

After the piece was aired today, author and comedian Ben Elton, who was a panellist on the show, said Mr Sunak was no better than Mr Johnson.

During the interview, Mr Sunak, a privately educated multi-millionaire, had told people to “hold their nerve” over surging mortgage payments.

He also gave his “total support” to the Bank of England, which last week raised interest for the 13th time in a row since December 2021 to 5%, the highest level in 15 years.

Mr Sunak said there was “no alternative” to the Bank’s goal of driving down inflation.

Mr Sunak also defended his recent decision not to vote in the Commons on the Privileges Committee report which found Mr Johnson had repeatedly lied to the parliament.

He said that he had shown moral leadership when he quit as Chancellor over Mr Johnson’s conduct, although that was almost a year ago.

READ MORE: Rishi Sunak: mortgage holders must 'hold their nerve' as rates surge

Mr Elton, a Labour supporter, said Mr Sunak had delivered an “extraordinary Orwellian, meaningless, evasive word salad”.

He said: “I sort of believed maybe he’s kind of a bit more decent [than Mr Johnson], and it turns out, he’s as much of a mendacious, narcissistic sociopath as his previous boss.

“This man literally, he seemed to be making a principle of the fact that he resigned from a government that he’d served loyally and tried to keep propped up for numerous years.

“He’s trying to boast about having worried about inflation while he was chancellor of the exchequer under Johnson.”

He added: “He seems to act as if being born into Downing Street six months ago was a miracle birth. No - he was a part of a 13-year cycle which has got us to this point.”

Elton went on: “He’s the Prime Minister. He owes us honesty but we got nothing but mendacity, evasion and vanity, just dripping with vanity.”

Mr Sunak also said he was willing to make unpopular decisions on public sector wages, in the clearest sign yet that he might block pay rises recommended by review bodies.

He said he had to make “difficult decisions” to help curb stubbornly high inflation amid fears  that it could be made worse by wage increases.

Unions have expressed outrage over reports that ministers are likely to take the rare step of rejecting some recommendations of the independent pay review bodies.

 

 

Mr Sunak said: “When it comes to public sector pay I’m going to do what I think is affordable, what I think is responsible.

“Now that may not always be popular in the short term, but it’s the right thing for the country.”

Chief Secretary to the Treasury John Glen also conspicuously refused to say if the Government would accept the independent pay body recommendations.

Whereas ministers had previously said they would accept the recommendations almost automatically, Mr Glen said ministers would now consider “the implications for inflation”.

He told Sky News said: “As a matter of principle pay review bodies are a very significant part of resolving the pay issues. But obviously we’ve also got to take account of the effect on inflation. That would be irresponsible not to do that.”

READ MORE: The Sunday Show, Ridge on Sunday, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg

Although typically accepted, the recommendations are not binding on ministers.

However the Government follows their advice when it suits it.Last year ministers defended below-inflation pay rises by saying they had followed the bodies’ advice.

Rejection of the recommendations could lead to further industrial action.

Union leaders have warned that “playing politics with working people’s incomes would put everyone’s futures at stake” and have profound consequences for future industrial relations.

Labour has signalled it would rule out rejecting the review bodies’ advice.

Shadow communities secretary Lisa Nandy told Sky: “If we were in government right now we would be asking the pay review bodies to give far more weight to the retention and recruitment crisis in the recommendations that we make.

“We’d take their recommendations seriously but we wouldn’t be bound by them.”