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Rishi Sunak has admitted that he was "silly" to reveal he had no working class friends in an interview he gave as a student, as he fought accusations his political judgement was too weak to be Prime Minister.
In an interview with Andrew Neil on Channel 4 on Friday evening, Mr Sunak was challenged on his previous statement that he had aristocrats as friends but not working class people.
The clip, from a 2007 BBC documentary about class, shows Mr Sunak reclined on a sofa telling a journalist he has friends of all classes but "err... not working class".
Asked about the clip, Mr Sunak said: "We all say silly things when we're students, but I've talked about my background, my family were welcomed here as migrants," he said.
"I grew up working in my mum's pharmacy...and you don't do that unless you actually interact with lots of people."
Pressed on his wife's decision to hold non-dom tax status, the former chancellor suggested the couple had made a mistake for her not to pay tax on her foreign earnings.
"She addressed the situation and made a statement about it," he said.
"These things, as I discovered and learned myself, are difficult when it comes to your family but I've learned from that experience.
"I'm confident that that experience has actually made me better suited to now lead."
