Rishi Sunak criticised for asking homeless man if he ‘works in business’ at London shelter

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner described clip as ‘excruciating’
Sophie Wingate24 December 2022
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Rishi Sunak has come under fire for what critics called an “excruciating” exchange with a homeless man.

In footage from his visit to a homeless shelter in London on Friday, the Prime Minister can be heard asking a man he is serving food to: “Do you work in business?”

The man, called Dean, replies: “No, I’m homeless. I’m actually a homeless person.”

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner tweeted the ITV clip and wrote: “Excruciating.”

The awkward exchange began when the multimillionaire Prime Minister was serving breakfast to the homeless man, who asked him: “Are you sorting the economy out?”

Dean then said he was interested in business, prompting Mr Sunak to ask him what kind of business.

When Dean replied finance, the Prime Minister said: “I used to work in finance, actually.”

Mr Sunak then asked: “Is that something you’d like to get into?”

“Yeah I wouldn’t mind. But, I don’t know, I’d like to get through Christmas first,” the homeless man said.

Mr Sunak asked: “What’s your plan, what are you doing this weekend?”

Dean replied that he was hoping the homeless charity St Mungo’s could help him get into temporary accommodation “so I’m not on the street”.

Another Labour MP, Bill Esterson, said the exchange demonstrated Mr Sunak was “out of touch”.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in