Rishi Sunak has admitted he remains “very bad on sugar,” consuming a cinnamon bun, muffins, cookes and cake every day.
A recently resurfaced video clip from 2019 revealed the Chancellor considered himself a “total addict” to a Mexican variety of Coca-Cola which is sweetened with extra cane sugar.
In a new interview the chancellor said he had cut down on the soft drink but continues to eat a lot of sugary goods.
“I’m very bad on sugar. I eat a lot of sugar,” Mr Sunak said. “I have cinnamon bun in the morning, chocolate chip muffins for breakfast, cookies and cake in the afternoon. So I eat quite a lot of sugar.”
He also told Politico’s Westminster Insider podcast that his favourite escape from work is playing 1990s video games, describing Super Mario Kart for the Super Nintendo as his “happy place”.
He said: “Mario Kart on the SNES [Super Nintendo Entertainment System] is my happy place. My brother actually gave me a Christmas present a couple of years ago which was genuinely one of the best presents I’ve ever received – they relaunched SNES in this mini format. It was epic.”
Mr Sunak also said Hinduism remains “an important part of my life” and revealed that he put a statue of Lord Ganesh on his desk to watch over Boris Johnson while the prime minister was first struck low from coronavirus.
“Lord Ganesh is still on my desk in No 11 [Downing Street],” Mr Sunak said. “My wife was insistent we left it in there.”
He added: “When the PM was sick … he was using my office in No 11, and I took all my stuff out – but Akshata was insistent we left that there for him, to keep an eye on him as well.”
Boris Johnson used Rishi Sunak’s office while sick with Covid
” height=”2533″ width=”3376″ srcset=”https://static.independent.co.uk/2021/03/12/11/newFile-7.jpg?width=320&auto=webp&quality=75 320w, https://static.independent.co.uk/2021/03/12/11/newFile-7.jpg?width=640&auto=webp&quality=75 640w” layout=”responsive” i-amphtml-layout=”responsive”> Boris Johnson used Rishi Sunak’s office while sick with Covid (PA)
The chancellor also defended his use of social media – having been mocked for his extensive use of slick personal marketing techniques dubbed “Brand Rishi”.
“If you’re a modern politician, it’s incumbent on you to communicate with people in the way that they want to get their news and information – and that’s changed over time,” he told the podcast.
Mr Sunak said his approach to branding “probably comes a little bit from my time in the [United] States, just observing how politics is done there, how people approach communication, the use of different media channels”.
