Tuesday is his first day in his new job as party leader. His name is trending on Twitter in India, where several politicians are celebrating what they call a “historic and commendable achievement”. For Brits it is perhaps more complicated. The predecessor was ridiculed because she did not last longer in the office than a head of iceberg lettuce does on the vegetable shelf. Sunak himself has been nicknamed “Robot Rishi”, as critics said he showed a startling lack of emotion during his speech to the people on Monday evening. There are many indications that Sunak must make an effort to be taken seriously, even though he was the only candidate who received more than 100 votes in the conservative party group. Today he will meet King Charles to take over the role of Britain’s third prime minister this year. It is expected that he will enter early this afternoon. Sunak is being congratulated by his party colleagues outside Tory headquarters on Monday. Photo: HENRY NICHOLLS / Reuters But will Sunak have a better chance of getting Britain through a winter with high living costs and war in Europe, than what Liz Truss has managed to achieve after six weeks in office? The British economy will in any case be high on the agenda when he chooses his ministers in the next few days. Who is Rishi Sunak? Photo: Aberto Pezzali / AP Rishi Sunak (42) becomes the new leader of the Conservative Party, and thus Prime Minister of Great Britain. Sunak has risen quickly through the ranks. He was first elected to parliament in 2015, and was finance minister from February 2020 to July 2022. But what do we know about him? Sunak was born in the coastal city of Southampton in 1980 to parents of Indian origin, immigrated from East Africa. His father was a GP, while his mother ran a pharmacy. Sunak becomes the first Hindu and British-Asian Prime Minister. He will also become the youngest British Prime Minister since the 18th century. Sunak was educated at the private boarding school Winchester College, Oxford and Stanford in the USA. In the US, he met his wife Akshata Murty, the daughter of an Indian billionaire and IT mogul. The couple has two daughters. Sunak has never commented on his personal wealth, but it is rumored that he became a millionaire already in his 20s working in finance. Got a shot in the arm when he was reprimanded and fined earlier this year for his participation in “Partygate”. Sunak is a teetotaler, and his drink of choice is cola. When he becomes Prime Minister this week, it will coincide with Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. Source: BBC. Does not want new elections Sunak has stated before the members of parliament that he does not want new elections in the country. According to common law, the next parliamentary election must be held before January 2025. If the opponent Penny Mordaunt had received more than 100 votes during the course of Monday, it would have become relevant to hold a primary vote in the party. Rishi Sunak together with the members of the powerful 1922 Committee of the Conservative Party. Photo: Stefan Rousseau / AP Many thought this would make the election within the party more democratic, but is only possible if the members have two or more candidates to choose from. On Monday, Sunak was still the only candidate who qualified to continue in the election campaign. Senior researcher at Nupi, Kristin Haugevik, says she thinks it has a lot to say that Sunak has a different background than what one is used to seeing in British politics. – Representation is important. That you have leaders you can identify with, that the whole people feel that they are reflected in the highest positions in politics. – But then he has also studied at Oxford, and he has done a number of other things that are perhaps more similar to what we have seen among British prime ministers in recent years. It is expected that Sunak will deliver an expanded budget on 31 October, and continue to repair the damage following Truss’s so-called “mini-budget”, says Haugevik. Criticized for his wife’s wealth Sunak receives criticism from several quarters because he has a large private fortune of 730 million pounds, or almost NOK 8.7 billion. The Washington Post reports. Much of the money comes from his wife, Akshata Murty, who is the daughter of an Indian billionaire who is called “the Indian Bill Gates”. Murty does not pay tax in the UK, because she is not registered as a resident in the country. Akshata Murty is the daughter of the billionaire Narayana Murthy, who is called “the Indian Bill Gates”. Photo: HANNAH MCKAY / Reuters Earlier this year, the BBC estimated that with this it has avoided paying 2.1 million pounds, or almost NOK 25 million, in tax. The huge fortune has led to questions about whether Sunak is in the right position to get ordinary people in Britain out of a cost-of-living crisis, reports the broadcaster. She and Sunak met when they both attended Stanford University in California, and married in 2009. They have two daughters together. – Congratulations to Rishi, says father-in-law Narayana Murthy in a statement to Reuters partner ANI. – We are sure that he will do his best for the people of Great Britain. Sunak has never commented on his personal wealth himself, but has defended his wife’s tax status in the past, telling The Sun newspaper that “slandering her to go after him is terrible”. One of the people? Sunak’s success is still seen as something positive among many British-Asians, who are celebrating the Hindu festival of Diwali this week. The city of Leicester holds one of the largest Diwali celebrations outside of India, and also has one of the country’s largest Asian communities. The BBC has spoken to some of those who live there. From Leicester’s Diwali festival in 2015. Photo: DARREN STAPLES / Reuters – He is the first prime minister with dark skin in the UK, and thus follows several different countries, says a resident who has not been named. – You have Nelson Mandela in South Africa, Barack Obama in the USA, and now it’s our turn. I think it is essential. Not everyone who was interviewed was equally convinced. – I don’t know if this is a big step. He is not being voted in by the British people, said another man the BBC spoke to, another said. – I think that if he had called an election and then stood as a candidate, we would have had a better idea of how things stand, said another resident. In India too, there were many who celebrated during the Monday. Reuters spoke to resident Raja Singh on the streets of New Delhi. – If you ask Indians today, they will say that they are proud that one of us is becoming prime minister of a country that ruled us for almost 100 years, he said. – We wish him all a welcome and victory to close,
ttn-69
