TEENAGE Rishi Sunak railed against “Tory Party propaganda” and hailed New Labour’s economic policy, HOAR can reveal.
The aspiring PM attacked the Conservatives for flogging off public assets “too cheaply” and took aim at “lavish pay deals” for bosses in his school magazine.
At 18, Rishi Sunak heaped praise on the then Chancellor Gordon Brown
The 1997 school mag article where Rishi Sunak praised New Labour
In a glimpse of his own future woes running the Treasury, the young Sunak bemoaned that the public “obviously like” expensive government schemes.
But he warned it “seems apparent that they do not want to finance it from their own pockets.”
Much like his attacks on his Tory rivals for “fairy-tale” promises in the race for No10, Mr Sunak back then added: “If voters want a ‘welfare-to-work’ scheme that they think will really make a difference then they should be prepared to pay for it.”
And he defended Gordon Brown slapping a retrospective windfall tax on energy firms – accusing their bosses of being too greedy.
He wrote in an edition of the Wykehamist magazine: “In practice most companies have probably been setting aside money to pay the tax and shareholders will therefore hardly notice the difference.”
“Most privatised companies have been sold off too cheaply. They have not provided as much service as they could have done and lavished profit on executive pay deals. This helps redress the balance.”
He urged his fellow pupils to ignore “Tory Party propaganda” over the windfall tax as it will actually protect pensioners and taxpayers by whacking rich bosses instead.
Years later as Chancellor, Mr Sunak would bring in his own windfall tax on energy producers, but insisted everyone call it an “energy profits levy” instead.
Last night a source close to Mr Sunak said: “25 years on, Rishi’s still standing up for pensioners and for business”.
Last week Mr Sunak was left red faced after a video emerged from his university days where he claimed he had no working class friends.
On Sunday night, Mr Sunak attacked his leadership rival Liz Truss for being a former Liberal Democrat and voting Remain.
The Foreign Secretary used the ITV’s debate to insist she had been on a political journey.
