Rishi Sunak is being ridiculed for begging for a ‘Star Wars’ cameo as Britain languishes in the grip of the cost of living crisis.
Rishi Sunak is being ridiculed for begging for a ‘Star Wars’ cameo as Britain languishes in the grip of the cost of living crisis
The UK’s richest ever Prime Minister – worth a combined £730 million with his 43-year-old tech heiress wife Akshata Murty – pleaded for a role flying an X-Wing craft and “taking down the Death Star” as he was quizzed on whether he thought of himself more as Luke Skywalker, Han Solo or Darth Vader from George Lucas’ sci-fi franchise.
Mr Sunak, 43, told BBC Three Counties Radio on Thursday (28.09.23): “Who wouldn’t love to go on the Millennium Falcon and have that be your ship? So I would love to be able to do that.
“But then again also piloting an X-wing has been probably one of my life’s bucket list things I would want to do so actually if you could have a chat with the people who film the movies there.
“If they could get me a cameo in an X-wing and I would get to say, ‘’Red Seven standing by before we take down the Death Star’ – that would make me a very happy man, so that was always my childhood dream.”
The PM refused to say which of the ‘Star Wars’ characters he identified, saying he would leave others to decide.
But social media has started to fill with mockery against the UK leader, with one X user joking: “Strong Dark Helmet energy from the billionaire.”
Another said about the Conservatives’ leader: “I certainly wish he and all the Tories were in a galaxy far, far away.”
More critiics mocked him for not even being able to be honest about which ‘Star Wars’ character he thought he was most like.
And another said alongside a cartoon meme of a spaceship exploding around a pilot: “Aw… look it’s iccle #RishiSunak piloting his X-Wing and just like everything else the man touches… this has gone to s*** too. Who’s he trying to fool that he’s on the good side, he’s a p*** weak Sith accountant #StarWars @RishiSunak.”
Mr Sunak’s interview came on the same day the PM dodged questions over the future of the HS2 – the northern leg of the high speed rail line between Birmingham and Manchester.
One critic said on X it looked as if the railway was as doomed as the Death Star.
The PM’s love of ‘Star Wars’ is well-known in Westminster, and he is said to have a sizeable lightsaber collection at his mansions.
There has even been speculation the politician – who visited the Star Wars area in Disneyland on a trip to California this summer – draws on the movies for his political philosophy.
When he was Treasury chief secretary in 2019, Mr Sunak tweeted a photo of himself and his then boss Sajid Javid at a screening of ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ – calling Mr Javid a “Jedi Master” in the caption.
When Mr Javid resigned as chancellor in February 2020, after losing a power struggle with Mr Johnson's former adviser Dominic Cummings, he tweeted about his successor: "The Force is strong in young Sunak."
Other British politicians have made ‘Star Wars’ in the Commons, including Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who once compared Boris Johnson to Jabba the Hutt during Prime Minister’s Questions.
Conservative former chancellor George Osborne’s name, meanwhile, appears in the credits for 2015’s ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ – as tax relief he granted to the filmmakers helped ensure it would be shot in Britain.
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