We need to stop judging politicians for their ‘rags to riches’ success stories

We need to stop damning people like Rishi Sunak and Wes Streeting for being self-made, writes Salma Shah

Sunak is self-made, but does this really make him heartless by virtue of his success? (PA Wire)

It’s official. If you’re self-made, you’re less sympathetic to those who are poor. So says the research published in the delightfully named Journal for Social Psychological and Personality Science, anyway.

A study of 2,000 people found – to some surprise – that those who escape poverty have less compassion for the poor they’ve left behind. Those born relatively wealthy have more generosity of feeling towards the less fortunate.

It’s too obvious and dull to psychoanalyse the reasons why this might be the case – the guilt of being well off and not having earned it probably makes you “kinder”, and the harshness of having to make it yourself toughens up your cynical side. It’s easier to be nice when you’re born rich.