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Chaos at the Tories
Rishi Sunak becomes Britain’s new Prime Minister
Rishi Sunak becomes Britain’s new Prime Minister
© Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP/DPA
Conservative ex-Finance Minister Rishi Sunak becomes Britain’s new prime minister. He secured most of the Tory faction’s votes after competitor Penny Mordaunt withdrew from the race.
After the resignation of short-term prime minister Liz Truss, 42-year-old Rishi Sunak will become Britain’s new prime minister. He unified most of the Tory MPs behind him on Monday after competitor Penny Mordaunt withdrew from the race.
Mordaunt wrote on Twitter that Sunak had her “full support”.
This clears the way for 42-year-old Sunak. The son of Indian immigrants, Southampton-born Sunak becomes the first British leader from an ethnic minority background in Britain. “Rishi Sunak has been elected head of the Conservative Party,” confirmed the head of the parliamentary group committee responsible, Graham Brady, in London.
Rishi Sunak is controversial
However, experts point out that Sunak does not have the support of the entire party and faction. Many members accuse him of triggering the downfall of popular Johnson by resigning as Treasury Secretary. In addition, critics point to the wealth of what is probably the richest British MP. The former investment banker is married to the Infosys founder’s daughter, who owns a hundreds of millions pound stake in the Indian IT giant.
Sunak ran against Truss to succeed Boris Johnson in the summer, but was defeated. After six weeks in office, Truss resigned over her fiscal and tax policies. A relief package put together by her government caused panic on the financial markets, forced Truss to take several volts – and ultimately to resign last Thursday.
The government chaos has caused the Tories to fall dramatically in the polls: they are currently well behind the opposition Labor Party. Its chairman Keir Starmer called again for new elections: “The country has to free itself from this chaos.”