British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has faced criticism for asking a homeless man at a charity if he was “in business” and wanted to get involved in the financial industry. Rishi Sunak, a former Goldman Sachs banker and one of Britain’s richest people, has been called out for being out of touch.
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The incident happened while Rishi Sunak was serving breakfast at a homeless shelter in London when he started chatting with a man who identified himself as Dean.
“Are you in business?” Rishi Sunak asked the man at one point during the conversation, handing him a plate of sausages, toast and eggs.
The man replied, “No, I am homeless. I am actually a homeless person.”
Opposition Labor deputy leader Angela Reiner posted a clip of the exchange on Twitter calling it “painful”, while another Labor MP, Bill Esterson, called Rishi Sunak “off-putting”.
The awkward exchange with the homeless man began when the man asked Rishi Sunak if he was “sorting out the economy”. When the homeless man then said he was interested in business and finance, Rishi Sunak replied that he was in finance too, before asking, “Is that something you’d like to get into?”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t mind,” Dean said. “But, I don’t know, I’d like to have Christmas first.”
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