WAVERING Red Wall voters reckon Rishi Sunak is too rich and out of touch to be PM.
As the No10 race heats up, The Sun heard what traditional Labour voters in Oldham who turned Tory in 2019 think of the contenders.
In a blistering assessment, voters said they feel let down by Boris Johnson and have “lost faith” in politicians.
Their biggest worry is rocketing bills and they desperately want the next PM to do more to ease the cost of living crisis.
None had heard about the trans rights row.
And they were scathing about the Net Zero obsession of some in the Westminster bubble.
One said: “For me, as a working class woman…I’ve got much bigger priorities on my plate at the moment.”
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In a blow to frontrunner Rishi, voters were suspicious of his enormous wealth and the previous non-dom status of his billionaire heiress wife Akshata.
One woman taking part in the focus group, put on by More iN Common said: “You look at his background and he is just not in touch with the real world.
“He is not in touch with the North, he is not in touch with working class people. He is not in touch with what is going on in the world.”
Another blasted Rishi’s wife for her non-dom status.
She said: “I'd like to see them put taxes up for high earners – like Rishi’s wife, who was claiming non-domicile and didn’t pay taxes on her millions and millions and millions of pounds.
“She got busted and they changed that now. But if she hadn't got busted it would have carried on.”
There is no suggestion the Sunaks broke any rules with their past tax arrangements.
Nearly everyone said their biggest worry was the cost of living crisis.
Another voter, a man who works at a discount supermarket, said: “I put the price changes up in the morning so I can see everything what's going on.
“There have been some mornings where it’s going up 40p or 60p. It’s every day now we are getting these price changes.”
He said it has been “absolutely mental” busy and shoppers have been bulk buying to avoid spiralling inflation.
The energy bailouts barely registered, with one branding it a “drop in the ocean”.
Asked to sum up their feelings about Britain in2022 in just a few words, they all gave a grim assessment.
One said “absolute mess”, another “shambles”. Another said “laughing stock” while one said “down the pan” and one said “left behind”.
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Luk Tryl, the UK director of the research group More iN Common, which conducted the focus group, said: “Speaking to these Oldham voters it’s clear whoever wins has a lot to do to rebuild their trust.
“This group leant their vote to the Conservatives in 2019, but failure to tackle the rising cost of living means they’re hesitant to do so again.
“Winning them back will require three things, firstly a leader who “gets it” who isn’t seen as being part of an out of touch elite.
“Secondly someone who has a concrete plan to put money in their pockets and finally someone who offers a positive hopeful vision to get Britain working again.”
Whoever is next Tory leader is under massive pressure to show they can keep hold of Red Wall voters in the North while winning back disillusions Tory heartlands in the leafy South.
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