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.

But what does this mean for our political discourse and the way we think about distributing wealth? Because of course, it impacts these decisions. People love a good backstory, especially in politics. A rags-to-riches “dream come true”, an uplifting tale of fighting against the odds and winning. Creative politicians like to find ways of portraying their resilience and proving they are authentic, having come a long way from humble beginnings.

Only recently, I wrote about Rishi Sunak’s wealth being a political hindrance to his ambitions. He is self-made, but does this really dictate his policy outlook, rendering him heartless by virtue of his success? Is Wes Streeting indistinguishable because he too in many respects, is a self-made man? I don’t doubt both men are in politics to do good – so why do we allow ourselves to caricature politicians in this way?

Does it mean that liberal politics can only be practised by permitting the wealthy into the ranks of the establishment?

This type of personification is pure pantomime and doesn’t reflect the reality of the situation or the immediate needs of many people who struggle to make ends meet. There are cold hard facts that should determine what interventions governments can helpfully make that are not couched in personal rhetoric.

It’s also damaging to employ the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” doctrine. If I can do it, so can you! Because of course that just isn’t true. Not everyone can make it to the top and actually not everyone wants to. Incremental improvements to people’s life chances and living standards are less glamorous than the “winner takes it all” school of success, but they are no less valuable.

The idea that anyone from anywhere can do great things is a fallacy. It’s unlikely that you’re going to be the next Steve Jobs even if you have taken to wearing black polo necks. Not everyone measures their life’s goals through money and status. Some people are just happy with enough, being able to service a mortgage, have a job that gives them dignity and security and take their children on a nice holiday regularly.

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So inevitably, with inflation outstripping wages, it’s difficult to be a go-getter focused on success when the gas bill needs paying and your shopping budget is getting you a lot less at the supermarket. What for many people used to be a norm is now becoming more difficult to obtain.

We have to prevent a narrative that only rewards a particular type of success from taking hold before it recreates the Victorian idea of the “deserving poor”. The centrists among us must be especially vigilant against this position – the failure to acknowledge that we don’t live in extremes and competent running of government and stability is what people need so they can take advantage of what life might offer them, whether it is big or small.

People who work hard and do the right thing are going to be few and far between when working hard gives you less and less. Poverty is not a choice and wealth isn’t always about hard work – so give a thought to the rest of us in the middle who are just hoping to get on.