How tall is Rishi Sunak? What did Angela Rayner say about the Prime Minister's height at PMQs?

Angela Rayner got personal with a jibe about Rishi Sunak’s height at Prime Minister’s Questions.

The Deputy Labour leader was standing in for Keir Starmer, with Oliver Dowden deputising for Sunak who is currently in Germany. Amidst several jokes from Dowden about the police investigation into Rayner’s council tax sale, the Ashton-under-Lyne MP hit back with a deeply personal attack about the Prime Minister’s stature.

She told the Commons: “I read with interest that (Dowden) has been urging his neighbour in No 10 to call an election because he’s worried they might get wiped out. Has he finally realised that when he stabbed Boris Johnson in the back to get his mate into No 10 he was ditching their biggest election winner for a pint-sized loser?”

The Deputy Prime Minister replied: “I think the whole House will have heard, despite all the bluster from the lady opposite, not a single word on whether she would actually back our plans to invest in our armed forces, no plans in a dangerous world.

“And of course, as ever, the deputy leader is always looking to attack others’ failures but never the one to take responsibility for her own. She once said you shouldn’t be waiting for the police to bang on your door, if you did it then you shouldn’t be doing your job. The right honourable landlady should forget her tax advice and follow her own advice.”

How tall is Rishi Sunak?

Sunak is thought to be around 170cm tall or 5ft 6in. He is slightly shorted than Boris Johnson, who is 175cm tall.

The Prime Minister has previously called on politicians to avoid personal attacks. When asked about Rayner’s comments, a spokeswoman said he was “more focused on the job in hand”.

Sunak previously came under fire for making a joke at PMQs about transgender people, when the mother of Brianna Ghey, a murdered trans teenager, was visiting the House of Commons.

Ralph Blackburn is NationalWorld’s politics editor based in Westminster, where he gets special access to Parliament, MPs and government briefings. If you liked this article you can follow Ralph on X (Twitter) here and sign up to his free weekly newsletter Politics Uncovered, which brings you the latest analysis and gossip from Westminster every Sunday morning.