Proud In-law Boasts That Rishi became PM at the Request of My Daughter, says Richard Eden

His rise to power was accomplished in the blink of an eye, taking him from fledgling MP to Prime Minister in just seven years.

But while admirers might attribute it to Rishi Sunak’s unwavering diligence, as well as the brilliance that earned him first class at Oxford, there is one dissenting voice – that of his mother-in-law.

In comments recorded in India and now posted on social media, Sudha Murti, 72, argues that her daughter Akshata, 42, who married Rishi in 2009, not only influenced his eating habits but made him prime minister.

Sudha, who earned degrees in engineering and computer science before becoming the first female engineer at Tata, one of India’s largest companies, explains that she and her family have long fasted every Thursday.

Spoken mainly in southwestern India, more than 25 in English, adds Sudha, who has written more than a dozen books in Kannada.

Despite the fact that Sunak’s family lived in England for “many years,” Sudha says he gave up quickly. “Well, Thursday is a good day,” he said to my daughter, “and that day he only ate one meal.”

Pushed to the point, Sudha exhorts her audience: “Just look at what women are capable of.”

Then she said that she was able to “successfully make my husband a businessman” – a simple description of billionaire Narayana Murthy, who founded the IT giant Infosys. “But my daughter managed to make her husband the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom,” Sudha adds.

Downing Street declines to comment. But perhaps the Prime Minister will repeat the words of the late great comedian Les Dawson: “My mother-in-law has come to our house at Christmas seven years in a row. This year we have a change. We will let her in.”