Rishi Sunak is the next British Prime Minister. The former finance minister won the Downing Street race on Monday and will succeed the short-lived Liz Truss. At 42, this wealthy ex-banker with a typical career path of the British elite becomes the youngest head of government, but also the first of Indian origin, in the United Kingdom.
“It’s obviously a great moment” for ethnic diversity issues in the UK, noted political scientist Anand Menon on the BBC. “What reassures me the most is actually the few comments that there have been on this subject. In a way, it’s something that we have normalized. »
A big favourite, he won after the resignation of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the failure of his opponent Penny Mordaunt to qualify, following a lightning campaign triggered within the Conservative Party by the resignation of Liz Truss, victim after 44 days in office of the financial storm caused by her plans for unfunded tax cuts.
Charged by Charles III with forming a new executive
With the Conservatives in the majority in the House of Commons, Rishi Sunak will be instructed by King Charles III to form a new government, probably on Tuesday. It will be a first for the new sovereign, who acceded to the throne on September 8 with the death of his mother Elizabeth II.
Unlucky candidate this summer against Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak will be the fifth Prime Minister since the Brexit referendum of 2016, which opened a long chapter of unprecedented economic and political turbulence in the United Kingdom. He is the third leader of the party in two months, a period of unprecedented instability, at the head of a majority crossed by heartbreak after twelve years in power.
“I want to straighten out our economy, unite our party and act for our country,” he said, announcing his candidacy on Twitter on Sunday during an intense weekend of negotiations. Wanting to stand out from Boris Johnson, he promised “integrity, professionalism and responsibility”.
Reassuring for the markets
Rishi Sunak, guardian of budgetary orthodoxy, has seduced a large part of his camp and will come to power in the midst of an economic and social crisis, with inflation at more than 10% and strikes which are multiplying. The one who had crushed Liz Truss’ economic plan this summer appears to be a reassuring figure for the British markets.
If Rishi Sunak likes to highlight his childhood as the son of a doctor and pharmacist in Southampton, a port in the south of England, he attended a prestigious private school for boys, then Oxford. He completed his studies at California’s Stanford University, where he met his wife Akshata Murty, daughter of an Indian multi-billionaire, then worked for the Goldman Sachs bank and investment funds.
Unbeatable on the “Star Wars” saga
Hindu, this father of two daughters was elected MP in 2015, parachuted into an easy constituency in Yorkshire (north of England), and immediately considered a potential Prime Minister. Barely five years later, at the age of 39, he acceded to the coveted position of Minister of Finance just before the start of the pandemic and gained notoriety by distributing massive aid to the economy.
Unbeatable on the saga Star Warss, this always affable minister – slick for some – sees the tide turning in the spring because of his wife’s tax arrangements. As prices soar, his lifestyle, with his expensive suits and his properties, makes him appear disconnected from a population struggling with a serious cost of living crisis.
“The Tories crowned Rishi Sunak Prime Minister without him saying a single word about how he would run the country and without anyone having the slightest chance of voting,” said Labor number two Angela Rayner. . At the Ministry of Finance, Rishi Sunak is the one who “failed” to grow the economy and curb inflation, she accused.