Sunak left red-faced as interior designer he hired for No10 signs anti-Tory petition
Rishi Sunak was left red faced after it emerged the interior designer he paid to revamp No10 signed a petition blasting Tory taxes.
John Challis – who refurbed the Prime Minister’s Downing Street flat – added his name to a web campaign slamming the Government over fuel duty.
The posh decorator’s embarrassing move came to light days after the PM refused to rule out a 12p fuel tax hike.
The change.org web petition, backed in 2018 by Mr Challis and addressed to then Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, declared: “You and the government seem hell-bent on driving us off the road with punitive tax increases!”
It was launched by a motorist fed up with pump price increases and got more than 80,000 signatures.
Mr Sunak and wife Akshata Murty – worth a reported £730 million – granted Tatler exclusive sight of their No10 makeover – which the society rag said cost a “very substantial, undisclosed” sum.
The flat is decked out with “opulent fabrics”, gilded cornicing and a rug big enough “almost to fill the room”.
Mr Challis told the magazine: “We made long, fully interlined curtains for all five windows overlooking the garden, hand-pleated and held back with tassels in red, gold and the ivory of the damask.”
He added: “Most of the sofas were velvet, in jewel colours, and the cushions also became a work of art.”
Ex-PM Boris Johnson was embroiled in a row over who should pay designer Lulu Lytle’s £112,000 bill for doing up his No11 flat.
Mr Challis, who also revamped the Sunaks’ Yorkshire mansion, declined to comment.
