Do we like Rishi Sunak?
Our score: 4 out of 10. A mixed result on the harm test and a decent record otherwise lands him in the middle, leaning down.
Sunak was born in Southampton in 1980 to a GP father and a mother who ran a small chemist's shop, with grandparents who came from the Punjab via East Africa. He was head boy at Winchester College, studied PPE at Oxford, then did an MBA at Stanford on a Fulbright scholarship. Goldman Sachs and hedge funds followed, then the Richmond (Yorks) seat in 2015 and the Treasury in 2020.
His best-known stain is partygate. The Met Police issued him a fixed penalty notice over a Downing Street gathering on 19 June 2020, Boris Johnson's birthday. Sunak said he had paid the fine and offered an unreserved apology, which is a long way from the dodging some of his colleagues tried.
On the harm test, the trans stuff is where he cops it. In June 2023 a covertly filmed recording showed him joking to Tory MPs about Ed Davey and women having penises, then saying the country needed to “focus on biology”. Stonewall's chief executive called for an apology, and a Tory MP called it depressing; Sunak's spokesperson said he has compassion for people questioning their identity. Separately, PinkNews reported that he had never voted on same-sex marriage, though he posted pride in the 2013 law.
On the planet and migrants, the record is a retreat. In September 2023 he pushed the petrol and diesel car ban from 2030 to 2035 while keeping the 2050 net zero target, and the Climate Change Committee's chair said it would make legal commitments harder to meet. After the Supreme Court found the Rwanda asylum scheme unlawful, he promised emergency legislation anyway; human rights groups called the plan cruel and immoral.
Lately he has been a commentator on Labour's troubles. His April 2026 Times piece called Starmer's Mandelson appointment a grave lapse of judgment and said the vetting row shouldn't be treated as merely a matter of process. He has also taken on advisory work, including rejoining Goldman Sachs as a senior adviser in 2025 while still an MP.
The real good stuff is the Richmond Project, the numeracy charity he and his wife launched in 2025 to help kids, families and adults who never got on with maths. City AM reported that his Goldman Sachs salary goes to it. That's a concrete use of a rich-bloke platform, even if it's a gentle cause.