London
CNN
—
Just seven weeks ago it looked like it might be everywhere for Rishi Sunak.
The former Chancellor of the Exchequer – the UK’s title for its chief finance minister – has made a high-stakes gamble. He launched an attack that helped end Prime Minister of Boris Johnson, came forward as his replacement, but ultimately lost to Liz Truss. Admitting his defeat, he retired to the parliamentary benches.
But to show how unpredictable British politics has become, Sunak returned triumphant of the political desert to replace Truss, whose premiership imploded last week.
Sunak was the only leadership hoping to secure the support of 100 Tory MPs, the necessary threshold set by party officials for potential candidates. He will become the first person of color to be British Prime Minister – and at 42 he is also the youngest person to hold the post in over 200 years.
He was the last person standing after his rivals – Johnson and House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt – fell by the wayside.
Speaking after being declared the new Conservative leader, Sunak said he was “honored and honoured” to become the next Prime Minister.
“It is the greatest privilege of my life to be able to serve the party I love and to be able to give back to the country to which I owe so much,” Sunak said.
“The UK is a great country, but there is no doubt that we face a profound economic challenge,” he added. “We need stability and unity, and I will make bringing our party and our country closer together as my top priority.”
Sunak said publicly for the first time on Sunday morning that he would enter the competition. Other than that brief statement, he didn’t make any big leaps for leadership this time around.
In the last competition, over the summer, he was widely seen as the more moderate of the two contestants. Compared to Truss, he has taken a less ideological line on issues like Brexit and the economy. (Unlike Truss, a Brexiteer turned hardliner, Sunak voted for the UK to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum.)
Like Truss, Sunak promised a tough approach to illegal immigration and pledged to expand the government’s controversial policy Rwanda Immigration Policy.
Sunak, whose parents came to the UK from East Africa in the 1960s, is of Indian descent. His father was a local doctor while his mother ran a pharmacy in the south of England, which Sunak says gave him a desire to serve the public.
“British Indians are what I tick on the census, we have a category for that. I am completely British, it 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 said in a interview with Business Standard in 2015.
He will be the first Hindu to become British Prime Minister, securing the post on Diwali, the festival of lights which marks one of the most important days in the Hindu calendar. Sunak himself made history in 2020 when he lit Diwali candles outside 11 Downing Street, the official residence of the British Chancellor.
He faced challenges during his elite journey, having studied at the exclusive universities of Winchester College, Oxford and Stanford. He is known for his expensive fashion taste and has worked for banks and hedge funds, including Goldman Sachs.
Sunak was also scrutinized the tax system of his wife Akshata Murty, the daughter of an Indian billionaire.
Earlier this year, Sunak and Murty appeared on the Sunday Times Rich List of the 250 richest people in the UK – the newspaper estimated their joint net worth at £730 million ($826 million).
Sunak’s election on Monday marks the pinnacle of what has been a rapid rise to power. He was first elected MP in 2015 and spent two years on the back benches before becoming a junior minister in Theresa May’s government. Johnson gave Sunak his first major government role, appointing him chief secretary to the Treasury in 2019 and promoting him to chancellor in 2020.
Sunak has the experience of battling the economic crisis, having guided the UK through the Covid-19 pandemic, and has positioned himself as the ‘sound finance’ candidate.
During the pandemic, Sunak introduced measures worth £400bn ($452bn) to stimulate the economy, including a generous furlough scheme, business loans and cuts on meals in restaurants. But this recovery was very expensive and forced the government to scramble to find savings.
Sunak was an early critic of Truss’ economic plan, which was rejected by investors, the International Monetary Fund and rating agencies. Although he also argued for lower taxes, he said taxes could only be cut once inflation was brought under control, which could take several years.
His warning over the summer that Truss’ unfunded tax cuts could trigger panic in financial markets has proven true. The pound slumped to a record low against the US dollar when Truss and his chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng unveiled their plan. UK government bond prices rose at the fastest pace on record, sending borrowing costs skyrocketing.
He also got the most votes from MPs in the last leadership election – comfortably crossing the new threshold with 137 approvals. Although Truss ultimately won the deciding vote among rank-and-file members, Sunak was not far behind, receiving 43% of the vote.
Johnson has made no secret of the fact that he believes Sunak betrayed him by resigning from his government, triggering his resignation on July 7 after a series of scandals rendered his position untenable.
Johnson’s downfall followed months of revelations from parties held at 10 Downing Street while the rest of the country was under Covid lockdown restrictions. Johnson himself was fined by police, making him the first prime minister in history to break the law in office.
For a long time, Sunak supported Johnson – especially since he too was fined in the so-called Partygate scandal.
But it backfired after Johnson was slow to act when his deputy chief party discipline whip, Chris Pincher, was accused of sexually assaulting two men at a party in early July. (Pincher later said he drank “way too much,” though he didn’t directly address the allegations.)
by Sunak resignation shock from Johnson’s cabinet over the Pincher scandal sparked a series of high-profile resignations that led to Johnson’s demise – and ultimately his own rise to Downing Street.
Sunak faces a huge task. The UK is in the midst of a deep cost of living crisis and soaring inequality. Financial markets are still spooked by Truss’ disastrous missteps in economic policy.
The Conservative Party, already unpopular after 12 years in power, has descended into utter chaos over the past four months and is now far behind the opposition Labor Party in opinion polls. The only solace for Sunak is that he doesn’t have to call an election until January 2025.