From A 'Total Coke Addict' To UK's Next Prime Minister: The Awkward Moments Of Rishi Sunak

In an interview with two school students who asked Sunak his preference between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, he immediately said “I am a Coke addict" but later clarified that he was a “Coca-Cola addict”.

United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak

Rishi Sunak is all set to take charge as Britain’s new Prime Minister after meeting with King Charles III. As Sunak will take charge of the office, he will become the first UK Prime Minister with South Asian heritage and the youngest for more than 200 years at the age of 42. The former Chancellor of the Exchequer and ex-banker at Goldman Sachs, Sunak had his set of awkward moments in his seven-year stint in politics. 

‘Total Coke Addict’

In an interview with two school students who asked Sunak his preference between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, the British MP immediately said “I am a Coke addict, I am a total Coke addict.” Realising that the statement can create confusion, Sunak instantly clarified that he was a “Coca-Cola addict”. He then went on to say that his favourite was “Mexican Coke”. 

Taking Money From Poor And Giving It To Rich

A leaked video of Sunak showed him boasting to the Conservative party members in Tunbridge Wells of taking public money out of “deprived urban areas” to help wealthy towns.

“We inherited a bunch of formulas from the Labour party which shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas,” Sunak said in a footage obtained by the New Statesman, reported the Guardian. He then boasted about the fact that he started to reverse those policies as chancellor.

‘No Working Class Friends’

In a 2001 BBC documentary called Middle Classes: Their Rise and Sprawl, a young Sunak could be seen speaking about his wealthy friends and privileged education. 

“I have friends who are aristocrats, I have friends who are upper class, I have friends who are working class … Well, not working class,” he said in the film. 

“I mix and match and then I go to see kids from an inner-city state school and tell them to apply to Oxford and talk to them about people like me and then I shock them at the end of chatting with them for half an hour and tell them I was at Winchester and one of my best friends is from Eton and whatever and they are like: ‘Oh, OK.’”

“We all say silly things when we are students,” he later told former Scottish journalist Andrew Neil, stated the Guardian report. 

Petrol Pump Stunt

Sunak has been accused of pretending to be less wealthy during a PR stunt to mark a cut in the prices of petrol. 

It turned out the red Kia car he filled up with petrol in front of the cameras actually belonged to an employee at the Sainsbury’s service station, as per the report. 

Later Sunak admitted "the most embarrassing thing that's happened to me is I struggled to pay for the petrol in a car that wasn't my own."