Sunak is staggeringly wealthy: The Sunday Times Rich List estimates that he and his wife, Aksharta Murthy, have a personal fortune of £651 million.
Emmanuel Macron isn't on the same level when it comes to cash, but by normal standards, the French president is still extremely wealthy (ex-Rothschild investment bankers tend to be able to afford expensive sandwiches for lunch).
Now, there's nothing to stop the super-rich from succeeding in politics, but the bigger question is, why put up with all the blame and criticism when there's no need to?
Mr Macron has drawn a flood of flak for trying to make the EU elections more interesting by calling a surprise parliamentary vote in the middle of a key European night, while Mr Sunak has been the subject of near-constant ridicule since launching such a terrible election campaign that he must have been trying to make a fortune by betting on how many seats the Conservatives would win – fewer than 10.
Maybe the idea is that no matter how difficult it is to govern, once you're out of office and some time has passed, people will look back at least somewhat fondly on you. Remember George W. Bush? We all said that such a fool would never be president of the United States again. Then Donald Trump came along and made Bush look like Stephen Hawking.
And then there's Tony Blair, beloved and then hated by many in Britain, but still a hero in Kosovo for his role in liberating the country. This week, Blair visited Kosovo and met five men who have been named Tony Blair in his honour. For many, meeting people named after you might be a little awkward, but Blair, who has as much self-respect as the Balkans, would probably have been delighted.
