At last, a PM I can look down to

Rishi Sunak’s victory is a testament to how much progress we have made on the equalities front. As recently as 25 years ago, someone with his characteristics could never have become prime minister. Yet in today’s Britain, being a member of an historically disadvantaged minority is no impediment to success. I’m thinking, of course, of his height. As one wag joked on Twitter, the shortest-serving prime minister in British history has been succeeded by the shortest serving prime minister in British history.

As a vertically challenged man myself, I take great comfort from this. Positive role models are few and far between in the modern world. In film and television there are the two Toms – Cruise and Hollander – but let’s face it, most successful leading men are tall. In football, there’s Lionel Messi (5ft 7in), but the current pretender to his crown – Erling Haaland – is 6ft 5in.

In contemporary politics, the best we could muster before Rishi came along was John Bercow, who seemed to be the living embodiment of Small Man Syndrome. Now, at last, we have someone we can look up to in Downing Street. Or rather, someone we don’t have to look up to, but can look squarely in the eye.

I’m only half-joking. I would love to be able to say my height is a matter of supreme indifference to me, but I’ve always been a bit chippy about it. That’s obvious from my response whenever I’m asked how tall I am: ‘Five eight and a half.’

My children ridicule me whenever they hear me say those words, comparing me to a small child boasting of being ‘four and three quarters’.