Former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer and Conservative party leadership contender Rishi Sunak is currently building a private swimming pool complex at his North Yorkshire home as the country faces dire water shortages.
Sunak, like his leadership rival Liz Truss, is facing questions over how he will deal with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and spiralling energy prices. He has reportedly spent £400,000 on the new pool. Reports from earlier this year estimate he would have to pay £13,000-a-year to keep the new pool warm.
- Millions of people face hosepipe bans as low water levels and tinder dry conditions continue across the UK.
- The government is expected to declare a drought for much of England shortly.
- Yorkshire Water is the latest firm to announce restrictions, from 26th August, while a South East Water ban is now in place for some 1.4m Kent and Sussex customers.
- Elsewhere, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight are under a hosepipe ban, while Welsh Water is implementing a ban from 19th August.
- Thames Water is also set to follow suit with its own restrictions in the coming weeks.
- A four-day amber warning for extreme heat from the Met Office is in place for many parts of England and Wales.
- Ongoing dry conditions, combined with July’s record-breaking heatwave, have depleted rivers, reservoirs and aquifers: leading to a number of water firms bringing in restrictions.
- Yorkshire Water, which has more than five million customers, (including Rishi Sunak) says that parts of the region have seen the lowest rainfall since records began more than 130 years ago.
Whilst such a project would have been initiated long before the current water crisis could have been foreseen, the timing is likely to cause considerable embarrassment to the former Chancellor who is already trailing in the leadership race.
Rival Liz Truss, herself not considered by many as a heavyweight by any means, is currently holding a two-digit lead in polls. If she were to win, it is seen as unlikely she would offer Sunak a senior job in her administration, effectively bringing an end to the latter’s career as a senior political figure.
Conservative leadership hopeful Rishi Sunak is having a private swimming pool built at his £2million manor in North Yorkshire
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