Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty was his surprise warm-up act at the Tory conference – only 17 responses you need

Rishi Sunak surprised everyone at the Conservative party conference today. Nothing to do with what he had to say in his speech, obviously, but when he was introduced by his wife, Akshata Murty.

And it wasn’t a brief introduction either, only slightly shorter than Liz Truss’s entire premiership.

‘Rishi and I are each others best friends’

Akshata Murthy shares details about her husband Rishi Sunak’s love for rom-coms but ensures the Tory Party conference that Emily in Paris is not informing EU policy.https://t.co/xItZsH7tea

Sky 501 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/pJLiKqfuJj

— Sky News (@SkyNews) October 4, 2023

Fair play, she’s got as many votes to lead the country as her husband did.

This feels very American….like a US convention, as wife comes on to humanise ‘her man’ pic.twitter.com/6px5FSGPfn

— Jon Sopel (@jonsopel) October 4, 2023

And it prompted no end of very funny and totally on-point responses. Here are our favourites.

1.

An unelected, non-dom billionaire businesswoman is delivering the keynote leader’s speech to the Tory conference in Manchester.

I kid you not!

Oh yes, she’s also the prime minister’s wife. pic.twitter.com/zpeFpWoZ7f

— The Purple Pimpernel (@Eyeswideopen69) October 4, 2023

2.

Rishi Sunak’s wife, who has reportedly avoided up to £20m in tax, through claiming non-dom status, says they are committed to “doing the right thing for the country” #CPC23

— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) October 4, 2023

3.

Had Boris Johnson been introduced by his wives and mistresses he wouldn’t be speaking until 8.30pm tonight.

— Kevin Maguire (@Kevin_Maguire) October 4, 2023

4.

Has Akshata Murthy taken to the stage to confess about Sunak steering policy to siphon funds into Infosys, the multi billion pound business her dad owns?

Or the fact she tried to dodge tax by declaring herself a non dom?

She is richer than royalty, of course she’s a Tory.

— Supertanskiii (@supertanskiii) October 4, 2023

5.

Always good to hear an extremely rich person tell the rest of us that her extremely rich husband understands “the struggles and the challenges that people are facing today.” pic.twitter.com/mo6OSXe63q

— Otto English (@Otto_English) October 4, 2023

6.

Can’t let this moment pass. Mrs Sunak says her husband want all young people to have the same opportunities as his own daughters . That’ll be at least 4x the school funding everyone else gets now.

— Fiona Millar (@schooltruth) October 4, 2023

7.

This is all very sweet but I couldn’t really give a flying flamingo why Mrs Sunak was attracted to the unelected PM. She chose him, we didn’t.

— Withnail Jones (@withnailjones) October 4, 2023

8.

Half expected Akshata Murty to say she was going to pay for HS2 to Manchester herself #CPC23

— Dale Bennett (@DaleBennett91) October 4, 2023

9.

Mrs Sunak describing her hubbies was deep rooted in his community links upbringing to the Southampton community – well some of it. #CPC2023 pic.twitter.com/vUdKWuTW9I

— Mick ☕️ (@MickCoffey2) October 4, 2023