IRIA News

The Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak will formally become UK prime minister on Tuesday following a meeting with King Charles III, Downing Street said.

Sunak will become the UK’s new Prime Minister this week, replacing the country’s shortest-serving leader Liz Truss who only lasted 44 days before she resigned. He secured the backing of lawmakers after his rival Boris Johnson dropped out of the leadership race, and another challenger, House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt, conceded that she did not have enough support from the party.

At the age of 42, Rishi Sunak is the youngest person to take the office in more than 200 years of Britain. He will also become Britain’s first prime minister of color after winning the race to lead the Conservative Party, tasked with steering a deeply divided country mired in economic gloom. In his first public comments, Sunak said: “There is no doubt we face profound economic challenges. We now need stability and unity, and I will make it my utmost priority to bring my party and country together.”

Sunak who previously served as chancellor of the exchequer (UK’s title for finance minister) told his lawmakers in parliament on Monday that they faced an “existential crisis” and must “unite or die”. He issued a plea for unity in the face of an economic challenge. In a TV address, Sunak promised to serve with integrity and thanked outgoing Prime Minister Liz Truss for leading the country during exceptionally difficult circumstances.

Although Rishi Sunak has been named to lead Britain, a set of procedures needs to be followed before he becomes prime minister. First, Liz Truss, who resigned on Thursday, will visit Buckingham Palace to formally stand down. Sunak will then meet with the monarch, who will ask him to form a government and will then become the prime minister in a handover of power from Truss expected on Tuesday.

UK’s outgoing prime minister Liz Truss has congratulated Rishi Sunak on winning the race and said that Sunak had her “full support.”

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon congratulated Sunak on his victory, saying she will do her best “to build a constructive working relationship with him in the interests of those we serve”, but she also called for general elections and repeated calls for Scottish independence.

1/ Congratulations to @RishiSunak – I wish him well and, notwithstanding our political differences, will do my best to build a constructive working relationship with him in the interests of those we serve.

— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) October 24, 2022

Opposition Labour Party MP Angela Rayner has questioned Sunak’s appointment as the Conservative Party’s new leader, saying he has “no mandate, no answers and no ideas”, and called general elections. “Nobody voted for this. The public deserve their say on Britain’s future through a General Election. It’s time for a fresh start with Labour.”

Sunak has ruled out an early general election, saying his first priority is to tackle the economic crisis.

Rishi Sunak’s ascent to top office

Sunak’s rise in British politics has been meteoric. After a career in banking, he entered Parliament in 2015 and was a junior minister in Theresa May’s government. He got his first major government role as chief secretary to the Treasury in 2019 and was later promoted to chancellor in 2020 by Boris Johnson. Sunak has gone from MP to prime minister in just seven years.

Sunak is a practicing Hindu, although he rarely talks about his faith publicly. “I am thoroughly British, this is my home and my country, but my religious and cultural heritage is Indian, my wife is Indian. I am open about being a Hindu,” Sunak told Business Standard.  

Many in India and its diaspora hailed his victory and celebrated the news that Sunak will be the first Hindu person to become UK’s prime minister. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also congratulated Sunak on winning the contest.

The wealthiest British politician

The victory has put Sunak’s wealth in the spotlight. This may be the first time in history that the residents of Downing Street are richer than those of Buckingham Palace, the British media pointed out. Sunak, a former banker, and his wife, Indian tech heiress Akshata Murty, have a combined fortune of about £730 million ($830 million), according to the Sunday Times Rich List. This amount is roughly double the estimated £300m-£350m wealth of King Charles III and his wife Camilla.

Sunak has faced challenges over his elite background, which some say could put him out of touch with the struggles of ordinary people. Sunak has also been scrutinized over the tax arrangements of his wife Akshata Murty, a fashion designer and the daughter of an Indian billionaire.

5 facts about Rishi Sunak

• At 42, Rishi Sunak will be the youngest prime minister in more than 200 years of UK’s political history.
• He is the first UK Prime Minister of South Asian heritage with both of his parents of Punjabi Indian background, from Kenya and Tanzania. 
• Sunak attended the prestigious Winchester College and later studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University. He also has an MBA from Stanford University in the United States.
• Before entering politics, he worked for the investment bank Goldman Sachs and a hedge fund, then co-founded an investment firm.
• He is one of the wealthiest lawmakers in Parliament. His wife is the daughter of an Indian billionaire and co-founder of the IT services company Infosys.