Rishi Sunak ready to Become UK PM
Rishi Sunak is the firm favorite to become the UK’s new prime minister after Boris Johnson dropped out of the race on Sunday evening.
Sunak who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2020 to 2022 has already secured the support of the Conservative lawmakers, with almost half of MPs backing him.
Sunak praised Boris Johnson for his achievements in Downing Street. In a tweet, Sunak wrote: “Boris Johnson delivered Brexit and the great vaccine roll-out.
“He led our country through some of the toughest challenges we have ever faced, and then took on Putin and his barbaric war in Ukraine. We will always be grateful to him for that.
“Although he has decided not to run for PM again, I truly hope he continues to contribute to public life at home and abroad,” Sunak tweeted.
Earlier Johnson who was forced to resign as prime minister only seven weeks ago announced he will not stand to return to lead the Conservative party, despite gaining the support of 102 MPs as he claimed.
“There is a very good chance that I would be successful in the election with Conservative Party members – and that I could indeed be back in Downing Street on Friday.
“But in the course of the last days I have sadly come to the conclusion that this would simply not be the right thing to do. You can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament.”
He said he is “well placed” to deliver a victory in the 2024 general election.
Born in Southampton to parents of Indian descent who migrated to Britain from East Africa in the 1960s, Sunak read philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) at Lincoln College, Oxford, and later gained an MBA from Stanford University in California as a Fulbright Scholar.
While studying at Stanford, he met his future wife Akshata Murty, the daughter of N. R. Narayana Murthy, the Indian billionaire businessman who founded Infosys. Sunak and Murty are the 222nd richest people in Britain, with a combined fortune of £730m as of 2022.
After graduating, he worked for Goldman Sachs and later as a partner at the hedge fund firms the Children’s Investment Fund Management and Theleme Partners.
Sunak was elected to the House of Commons in the 2015 general election. He supported Brexit in the 2016 referendum on EU membership. He was appointed to Theresa May’s second government as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Government in the 2018 reshuffle.
After May resigned, Sunak supported Boris Johnson’s campaign to become Conservative leader. After Johnson was elected and appointed Prime Minister, he appointed Sunak as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
He became Chancellor of the Exchequer in February 2020.
Agencies
