Why are people so obsessed with Rishi Sunak's height?

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New British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is the first British Asian to take up residence at 10 Downing Street, the country's first Hindu leader, the youngest since 1812 and one of the richest statesmen of all time.

At 170cm (or 5ft 6in), he is also one of the shortest Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom on record, a matter of growing obsession online, with Google searches for it increasing over the week.

For the record, here's how our new PM compares to its predecessors:

Liz Truss (2022-22) – 5ft 5¼”Boris Johnson (2019-22) – 5ft 9”Theresa Mai (2016-19) – 5ft 6”David Cameron (2010-16) – 6ft ½”Gordon Brown (2007-10) – 5ft 11in Tony Blair (1997-2007) – 6ft John Major (1990-97) – 5ft 11in Margaret Thatcher (1979-90) – 5ft 5in James Callaghan (1976-79) – 6ft ds 1 inch Harold Wilson (1964-70) - 5ft 8in Alec Douglas-Home (1963-64) - 6ft 1in Harold Macmillan (19 57-63) - 6ft Winston Churchill (1940-45, then 1951-55 ) - 5ft 6in famous red box in time for the budget, forcing his fellow Treasury ministers to line up the steps below him, looking much shorter than their boss.

The question returned to took center stage on Tuesday when Mr Sunak met King Charles III at Buckingham Palace and the men were pictured together shaking hands and, despite Her Majesty said to stand 8cm above her last Prime Minister, adding an extra layer of mystery to the ever more bewildering world of Westminster Wonderland.

Mr. Sunak's height makes him 5cm shorter than the height of the average adult male in Britain, according to the Office for National Statistics, which seems to be of more concern to politicians than the rest of us. mere mortals.

"Height is one of the strongest markers of p virem Swami, Professor of Social Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University.

"Many men perceive themselves as more masculine when they feel taller Much of the conversation around the waist is really about masculinity and its fragility.