Maya Angelou famously said ‘when people show you who they are, believe them.’
But even though I know what type of man Rishi Sunak is, I was still outraged at my latest discovery.
It seems the jet-setting Prime Minister is continuing his preference for helicopter travel, taking an RAF chopper from London to Dover on Monday, a journey of just over an hour by train’.
To me, this shows that he has no sense of value for taxpayer money, no principles, and no ideas for Britain
The news of Sunak’s travel arrangements comes just months after it was reported that his private swimming pool placed so much strain on the local electricity network that he had to pay to expand the National Grid capacity.
It’s a sign of where his priorities lie that Sunak has yet to take firm action on the broader National Grid, which the head of regulator Ofgem says is ‘not fit for purpose’ as we transition to renewables.
While the UK is seemingly unable to ensure that we can heat more homes using renewables when the nation is struggling with energy bills, Sunak is making sure his own swimming pool has plenty of warmth.
UK consumers are even paying hundreds of millions of pounds to turn wind turbines off, because the grid cannot cope with how much green clean electricity they generate on some days.
This is alarming and given our urgent need to switch to cleaner forms of energy, you would think it would be a priority issue for Rishi Sunak – after all, why wouldn’t the PM and Government want people to have cheaper green energy?
Most people will rightly wonder why Sunak is taking a helicopter when he can get a train, or why he seemingly sees upgrading his own heating arrangements as a priority over expanding the grid for the whole country.
As always, it is one rule for them and one for the rest of us – it shows that Sunak is out of touch and out of place as our country’s PM.
I believe this is the most selfish and corrupt Government – something borne out by Sunak’s actions.
Just hours after becoming PM, he brought back Suella Braverman as Home Secretary, which never should have happened, given she had resigned less than a week earlier for breaking the ministerial code.
Since returning, questions have been raised over her approach to seeking a private speeding course after being fined.
In my view, grounds were clearly there for an official probe, but Rishi Sunak refused to initiate a ministerial code investigation, I suspect because as well as lacking a moral compass, he lacks a backbone.
Has Braverman got something on him? Is Sunak too dependent on her support to remain as PM? Or is he simply too weak to stand up to powerful rivals?
When he took office as Prime Minister, Sunak promised integrity, professionalism, and accountability – but we’ve had the exact opposite throughout his premiership.
The examples keep piling up.
In May, Rishi Sunak – when discussing the taxpayer-funded legal fees given to Boris Johnson – said: ‘It is actually a long-established process across multiple Administrations that former Ministers are supported with legal representation after they have left office to deal with matters that relate to their time in office.’
But then last weekend, we found out the Government had written to Johnson to warn him about his conduct in relation to the Covid Inquiry, threatening to stop paying his legal fees.
Therefore, using taxpayer money to pay for these fees is clearly a choice, not an obligation.
It seems to me they will pay the legal fees as long as Johnson’s statements align with their interests, making a mockery of Sunak’s implication they were obligated to do so.
Boris has only voted in Parliament a handful of times since leaving office as Prime Minister, instead choosing to focus on making millions in private appearances – we should be asking not only questions about the government’s threat to withdraw legal funds, but why Boris wants to remain an MP at all.
This rotten Government has once again been exposed for their self-interested, hypocritical behaviour, using your money as bargaining tools for their own protection.
The country was pleased to see the back of Boris Johnson and then Liz Truss, but people’s lives have certainly not improved under Sunak’s weak and inept leadership.
And neither has the whiff of scandal subsided.
Not only is Rishi Sunak’s wife a non-dom, but Sunak himself is now being investigated by the parliamentary standards commissioner, over whether he properly declared his wife’s shareholding in a childcare company that could benefit from a new government pilot scheme.
It stinks, of course, but is anyone surprised?
The level of cronyism we have seen from this Tory Government – under successive leaders – is shocking, yet all too sadly expected. The public will not and should not forget the ‘VIP lane’ that allowed those with contacts at the top of government to try and secure lucrative contracts during the pandemic.
Sunak knows things are not going well. That is why he is desperately and crudely focussing on ‘stopping the boats’, despite the fact that it is his party that has been in power for 13 years.
I’m not even sure that desperation can account for his continual use of helicopters, even for relatively short journeys, during a national cost-of-living crisis.
Is this out-of-touch Prime Minister refusing to take the train because wants to avoid the public, and their verdict on his leadership?
This Government, led by the Helicopter Prime Minister, has no moral compass, and no sense of what ordinary people are going through in the cost-of-living crisis.
When you consider their record and recent conduct you cannot fail to conclude that Rishi Sunak, just like the rest of the Tories, is simply unfit to govern our country.