Rishi Sunak height in feet?
Rishi Sunak is 5ft 6 inches tall. This is the equivalent to 170cm.
According to the Office of National Statistics, Sunak is 5cm shorter than the average man in the United Kingdom who is said to be 5 ft 9 inches tall.
Prime minister Rishi Sunak is slightly taller than his wife Akshata Murthy, daughter of the Indian billionaire Nr Narayana Murthy, who is said to be 5ft 4 inches tall.
At 5ft 6 inches, Rishi Sunak is 4 inches shorter than former prime minister Boris Johnson who is 5ft 10 inches. Sunak is the same height as Theresa May. He is one inch taller as prime minister, than Liz Truss and Margaret Thatcher, who entered Downing Street at 5 ft 5 inches tall.
Mr Sunak is 2.5 inches shorter than Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who is 5 ft 8.5 inches tall. He is 3 inches shorter than deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab who is 5ft 9 inches.
Rishi Sunak height – Is it an issue for his political career?
Mr Sunak is the shortest male prime minister since Winston Churchill.
For centuries, politicians have aimed to demonstrate their power, competence and strength. Height is often said to be an indicator of these qualities, given its links to health and wealth. It was suggested that being a short man could be bad for a political career.
A study by physiologists from the University of Groningen, Netherlands, suggests that a lack of height hinders a politician’s prospects on election day. In a study of US presidential elections, they found that taller candidates received more votes two thirds of the time.
Tony Blair and David Cameron, the only British prime ministers to win outright majorities for their second terms this century were both six foot tall.
The power of tall politicians appears to be similar on this side of the Atlantic. Despite fleeing to the UK during World War II, former French president Charles De Gaulle was a French national hero, ranking above Napoleon according to a 1990 poll. De Gaulle was regarded not just as a leader but as a saviour. It is widely suggested that his 6 ft 5 inch stature contributed to this legendary status.
Nonetheless, not all world leaders are tall. Russian President Vladimir Putin is an identical height to Rishi Sunak. Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban is just once inch taller. Both though have been keen over the years to demonstrate their power through topless images and sporting prowess.
Controversies around Rishi Sunak’s height
People previously joked that having Rishi Sunak alongside him, allowed Boris Johnson to convince the public, peers and rivals that he was tall and thus powerful, competent and electable.
There were previously reports that 6 ft 5 Conservative MP Simon Clarke was appointed by Johnson as Chief Secretary to the Treasury as part of a ploy to play on Sunak’s height insecurity. Another Treasury minister at the time, Jesse Norman MP, was also 6ft 5 inches tall.
It was speculated that the potential for these two extremely tall colleagues to appear standing next to Mr Sunak in the annual budget photograph was an attempt to belittle the UK finance minister. As it happened, Simon Clarke excused himself from the 2021 photograph given his phobia of open spaces.
