Rishi Sunak has become Britain’s first ethnic minority head of government after he was named the new leader of the Conservative Party on Monday. He is a billionaire ex-banker, grandson of Indian immigrants and defender of budgetary orthodoxy.
Setting himself up as the sole candidate to succeed Liz Truss, who was ousted from power by the conservatives themselves last week after just a month and a half of chaos over their fiscal policies, is now Sunak’s time.
In September, Sunak lost to Truss in the race to replace Boris Johnson, despite warnings that his rival’s ultra-liberal economic plans were “fantastic” in times of high inflation.
That caution, which has earned him the label “socialist” by some on the right, now marks him as the right person to reassure markets and stabilize a recession-threatening economy.
All this despite the fact that many Britons see him as a very wealthy technocrat, disconnected from the life of the populace, and Johnson’s supporters consider him a “traitor” who, with his resignation as Treasury Secretary in July, caused the fall. of the controversial leader.
The first Hindu in power
After just five years in the Conservative Party, Sunak, unknown to the general public despite being the UK’s richest MP, was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer by Johnson in February 2020.
Thus, he became the first Briton of Indian descent and Hindu religion to lead that portfolio.
In the past, Rishi Sunak has taken an oath in the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred book of Hinduism, written in Sanskrit. And now he becomes the first head of government of the religion, and the first non-white even at the beginning of Diwali, a major five-day Hindu holiday.
A month after taking office in 2020, the outbreak of the pandemic allowed him to quickly distinguish himself from his boss’s controversial image: thanks to a massive government aid package, Sunak emerged as one of the most popular members of the government, while Johnson was heavily criticized for mishandling the health crisis.
The image of the two politicians contrasts like night and day.
Sunak claims not to drink alcohol and is extremely careful with his image of seriousness and modernity on social media, where he has been criticized for showing up with very expensive technological devices, illustrating how his life differs from that of the average British people.
the great fortunes
Born on 12 May 1980 in Southampton, on the south coast of England, Sunak is the eldest of three children of a general practitioner in the public health service and a pharmacist.
Her grandparents, born in India, emigrated to eastern British East Africa in the 1960s.
Sunak, who claims to have been a victim of racism in a fast food as a teenager he attended Winchester College, a boys’ college, and studied politics, philosophy and economics at the prestigious British universities of Oxford and Stanford in the US.
He met his wife, Akshata, in California, where the couple, who have two daughters, lived before moving to the UK.
Supporter of Brexit, Sunak declares himself a fan of cricket, football and the movie saga “Star Wars”.
Before entering politics, he worked in finance, including with the Goldman Sachs group, and had his own investment company. In May, he became the first British political official to reach the list of great fortunes.
He and his wife are estimated to be worth 860 million euros.
His popularity plummeted when, after coronavirus restrictions were lifted, he cut aid and began raising taxes to conform to budget orthodoxy.
“To me being conservative means being responsible for the money, both of the people and of public finances,” he justified to members of his party who criticized him for this unpopular policy.
His image was also damaged by a scandal over his wife’s favorable tax status.
Registered as “not resident” in the UK, Murty avoided paying taxes in the country on her millionaire income abroad. The maneuver was legal, but was so criticized that it ultimately changed the tax situation.
Source: DN
