Rishi Sunak admits his wife has been ‘lobbying’ him about opening the beauty industry as he says ‘sorry’ for the delay in getting salons back up and running following the first lockdown
- Rishi Sunak revealed his wife has been ‘lobbying’ him about the beauty industry
- Chancellor of the Exchequer reflected on reopening salons after first lockdown
- Speaking to Glamour, said ‘I’m sorry you feel that it’s been particularly difficult’
- He hinted at a ‘localised approach’ for reopening the industry in December
Rishi Sunak has revealed how his wife has been ‘lobbying’ him about opening the beauty industry amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, 40, who lives in London, explained that the government had to follow advice from their health and medical advisers when deciding if it was safe to reopen the beauty industry after the first lockdown.
He was told by Glamour Editor-in-Chief Deborah Joseph that many women felt the decision to delay opening an industry worth over £28.4 billion to the UK economy annually was misogynistic.
Rishi reassured the publication that there are females who influence the decision process, and told the publication: ‘I’m sorry you feel that it’s been particularly difficult. We’ve had to take advice from our health and medical advisers – they looked at the various different close contact settings so they had to wait a bit longer to open.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak revealed his wife has been ‘lobbying’ him about the beauty industry. Pictured: Rishi and his wife Akshata Murthy and their daughters
Rishi (pictured) explained that the government had to take advice from health and medical experts before deciding if it was safe to reopen the beauty industry
‘Having said that, I’ve seen first-hand – and I obviously get a lot of lobbying on this topic from my wife. And I have seen the efforts the beauty industry has gone to – it’s not fun or cool working under visors – but they’re working hard at it because they want to welcome their customers back in a safe way.
‘A huge shout out to them for doing that. Hopefully on 2nd December we can get back to our more localised approach and we can all look our best for Christmas… even though there may not be the usual Christmas parties this year.’
Rishi, who has daughters Krishna and Anoushka with wife Akshata Murthy, was told beauty is equally about appearance as it is mental health.
Reflecting on family life, he added that he wants his children to have ‘fantastically strong models’ to ensure that they believe there isn’t any limits on what they can achieve in their chosen career paths.
Rishi (pictured) said a ‘more localised approach’ may be used to reopen the beauty industry in December. Pictured: Rishi and his family
Rishi, who was privately educated at Winchester College and went on to study at Oxford and in America before working at Goldman Sachs, revealed his daughters are excited about seeing the US elect their first female Vice President, Kamala Harris.
He added his family are ‘very keen on science’, so hearing about Professor Sarah Gilbert who is heading the coronavirus vaccine team at the University of Oxford is equally inspiring.
The Chancellor explained that he’s aware young people are more likely to have been furloughed and said he’s trying to protect as many jobs as possible.
‘But I can’t save every single job, that won’t be possible, no chancellor can,’ he said. ‘What I can do is provide new possibilities, such as my Kickstart scheme, which we’ve created to support young people into really high-quality job placements – and fully fund those.’
Rishi also acknowledged a need to go beyond Twitter and LinkedIn to ensure that he’s communicating with a diverse range of people to aid the decision making process.
Rishi, who uses Twitter and LinkedIn, revealed he’s open to considering other methods to connect with people. Pictured: Rishi and his family
Read the full interview with GLAMOUR UK’s Editor-in-Chief Deborah Joseph and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak in the special edition of Money Matters on Glamourmagazine.co.uk