Winchester College: PM's old teacher says he won't vote for him

Nick MacKinnon taught maths to the Tory leader when he attended the school in his youth. Now, in an interview with The Mirror, the retired teacher is saying he will be voting for the Labour Party in the next General Election.

Mr MacKinnon told the Mirror: “I remember him only as a boy at the back of class, I recall little about him as a pupil but his achievements at Winchester are not in dispute. He was a good boy, he was head of school and the first non-white head of school in 600 years at that.

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“He was a very good boy and I am sorry for the way he has turned out, which was to become wildly opportunistic.”

Rishi Sunak

Mr MacKinnon worked at the school — to which Sunak and his wife have donated more than £100,000 — from 1986 until 2020. He continues to tutor maths, English and Medieval history.

He continued: “For me Brexit is completely unforgivable, his support for it was purely self serving. He knew to a single new penny how much it would cost but he put his career in the Conservative Party ahead of that and supported it.

“Some of his Conservative colleagues were maniacs like Truss or opportunists like Boris Johnson, but Sunak knew, he has a high level of understanding and they didn't. You have to understand that Rishi Sunak is wired into the world's financial systems, he is highly tuned and gifted and he knew what the impact would be but still he still followed that route.

“So many people voted for Brexit who had no idea what they were voting for, they didn't understand, but he cannot claim that. It is a slow puncture in UK PLC and it is going to take at least 20 years to get out of this mess.”

Winchester College (Image: Winchester College)

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The former teacher also criticised the newly unveiled National Service policy as an “opportunistic punt” to garner support among pensioners, saying: “No one else is old enough to have any clear idea of what benefits it could possibly bring. Perhaps his idea was in some way influenced by his school days because he was in the CCF (Combined Cadet Force) at Winchester, it was a compulsory thing for all pupils.

“They would spend each Wednesday for a year doing drills and exercises and so on and then there was the option of continuing it into community service but I don't know whether he took that up.”

Mr Sunak has previously discussed his time at Winchester College, saying that he was lucky to have the opportunity to attend the school.