‘Completely out of touch with reality’: Brits are tired of rich celebrities claiming to be ‘poor’ when the rules no longer benefit them
Brits have their own genre of terrible rich person, and today a new one has popped up, sparking discussion about when it’s okay to call yourself “poor.”
Alexander Armstrong—a big star in the U.K.; you might recognize him as the voice of Sarah Jane’s supercomputer in the Doctor Who franchise—decided to publicly complain about the Labour government’s new VAT on private school fees. The money is supposed to go towards providing more teachers for state schools, potentially helping struggling institutions. However (and perhaps rather predictably), people who send their kids to private school seemingly do not like having that financial responsibility. But if you’re rich enough to be using a private school in the first place, there’s very little chance you can’t afford the extra cost. And if you can’t, was private school ever a truly viable option for you?
Armstrong made his comments to the Telegraph, a newspaper sometimes nicknamed the “Torygraph” because of its right-wing ideals. “I’m feeling really, really angry about [the VAT], and extremely poor,” he said. “In our case, private school is the only place available for our children to learn music.” He added, “Our 10-year-old has special educational needs. He couldn’t survive in the state system. We have chosen that, not because we’re evil, and not because we want to buy a head-start for our children, but we want them to have as good an education as we can get.”
Brits are having an absolute field day with the “extremely poor” comment. Wanting to protect your children is understandable, but Armstrong is not poor by any stretch of the imagination. He was wealthy before he started his TV career (arguably, his family’s wealth enabled him to pursue one in the first place), and he gets paid a hefty sum for presenting Pointless, one of the biggest game shows in the U.K. (It’s rumored he earns £20,000 per episode, and the show airs five days a week.) The jokes came fast.
“I’m just a poor boy, from a poor family, spare me my life, from this school VAT,” wrote one person who runs a parody account alongside a Photoshopped picture of Armstrong as Freddie Mercury.
“I think it’s time for Alexander Armstrong to cancel his Netflix subscription and cut down on the avocado on toast,” quipped someone else. Others were more serious. “I think it’s a real shame when you discover that someone whose work you enjoy … turns out to be completely out of touch with reality,” said an X user.
Brits do not take kindly to millionaires pretending they’re working class
This kind of situation has happened in the U.K. many times, and every time, it’s been greeted with equal parts outrage and mirth. Take the case of former Top Gear presenter and noted bigot Jeremy Clarkson, for example. He bought a farm specifically to avoid inheritance tax—he admitted as much—and then, when the laws changed, he tried to present himself as a working-class man of the people standing up against a tyrannical government. Fortunately, very few people bought it.
Then there’s the case of Victoria Beckham, a woman so rich she was called “Posh Spice” when she was in the Spice Girls. During the Netflix documentary, Beckham, she claimed she was “working class.” Her husband, football legend David Beckham, who came from a much more modest background, told her to “be honest.” She eventually admitted her father used to drive her to school in a Rolls Royce. Everyone enjoyed the memes that sprung out of that moment (they were genuinely hilarious), though people were also understandably annoyed that Victoria Beckham seemingly wanted credit for “bettering herself” when she was always wealthy.
Then, of course, there was former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. He was a man of many mistakes, but one of his most amusing gaffes came in June 2024, where he claimed he went without “lots of things” growing up and then named Sky TV as one of those things. It was funny, but it also sort of horrifying that an elected official understood so little about poverty while being incredibly well-off himself (Sunak is also married to an extremely wealthy Indian heiress).
Alexander Armstrong is the most recent person to be slammed for claiming a “poor” identity he does not have, but he surely won’t be the last.
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