Rishi Sunak reveals himself as Christmas enthusiast who plays festive songs from mid-November

Sunak told reporters on a flight to the Cop28 climate summit that he started to play Christmas music two weeks ago and likes to play festive songs when he is signing thousands of Christmas cards for MPs and supporters.

He said: "I am a massive fan of Christmas music. Someone outed me on that when I was Chancellor because they accidentally walked in on me singing Michael Buble in advance of some interview.

WATCH HERE: Rishi Sunak speaking at Cop28 climate conference

"So I had the Christmas music on about two weeks ago, and everyone shouted at me, and then I've done it in private. Now it's public, now I can do that in public.

"Come on! We did the Christmas market in Downing Street today! It's fine, it's all very good.

"I put the Christmas music on and I just sit there and sign away, and I've been doing that for about 10 days already."

Sunak said he had so far signed "thousands" of Christmas cards and was grateful that his Christian name was so short as it made them faster to sign.

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He added: "I called my mum last year when I did it and I said, 'Thank God you named me a name that only has five letters in it.' If it was a 10-letter thing this would probably have taken twice as long."

Sunak revealed the Pogues' song Fairytale of New York was one of his favourite Christmas songs. The band's lead singer Shane MacGowan died on Friday.

Sunak said: "Lots of Christmas music, including his, over the past. It's on every Christmas playlist, is that song, so a great loss, a great loss."

MacGowan died aged 65, just days after his wife marked their five-year anniversary.