Explained: Who is Rishi Sunak, the Indian-origin leader campaigning to become UK’s PM?
Explained: Who is Rishi Sunak, the Indian-origin leader campaigning to become UK’s PM?
Rishi Sunak announced his bid to become the UK’s next Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party on July 8, a day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would resign from his post.
Former chancellor Rishi Sunak announced his bid to become the UK’s next Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party on Friday (July 8). He kicked off his campaign with the release of a slick video on social media, where he emphasised his Indian heritage and that his “family is everything” to him.
The Indian-origin Tory leader said he wanted to “restore trust, rebuild the economy and reunite the country”, and stressed the age old-conservative values of “patriotism, fairness, hard work.”
Sunak’s bid comes after a tumultuous week in the UK that culminated with Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s resignation on Thursday, a day before Sunak’s announcement. Johnson, who had consistently refused to leave despite growing criticisms from his own party, was forced to exit after more than 50 ministers left their government posts. The spree of resignations began with the sudden exit of two senior-most ministers, Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid, who left the cabinet on July 5.
After exiting his post as Chancellor of the Exchequer (or Finance Minister), Sunak wrote in his resignation letter that “the public rightly expect government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously”. He added, “I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning.”
Who is Rishi Sunak?
The 42-year-old Tory MP was born in the UK’s Southampton to Indian-origin parents. His father was a general practitioner for the National Health Service (NHS) and his mother ran a local pharmacy. His grandparents were born in Punjab and had migrated to East Africa, before moving to Britain in the 1960s where they reportedly worked administrative jobs.
He studied at the elite private school Winchester College, after which he went to Oxford University and Stanford University, where he received his MBA and won the prestigious Fullbright scholarship.
His impressive resume includes working as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and various hedge funds. In 2009 Sunak married Akshata Murty, the heir of Narayan Murthy, the billionaire owner of Infosys.
Rishi Sunak’s political career
Sunak’s political career began in 2015 when he was elected the Conservative MP for Richmond, Yorkshire. An early supporter of Brexit, his career was catapulted when he was made a junior minister in former UK PM Theresa May’s government. Sunak, who backed Boris Johnson’s Tory leadership election in 2019, was rewarded with the post of Chief Secretary to the Treasury that year. After a cabinet reshuffle in February 2020, Sunak was promoted to Chancellor of the Exchequer, a post that lies third in the ministerial ranking, placed only behind deputy prime minister and prime minister.
As the newly elected chancellor, he faced the tough challenge of leading the economy when the coronavirus pandemic raged across the world and lockdowns were imposed in the UK. Pledging to “do whatever it takes” to help UK citizens, he launched a £350 billion financial rescue package that led to a tremendous rise in his personal poll ratings, reported the BBC. He was praised for this scheme and his expensive job retention programme that, according to Reuters, averted mass unemployment.
The criticisms against policies of Rishi Sunak
While Sunak was able to rapidly surge through the Conservative party in only a few years, he has faced scathing criticism from the opposition and the public during his role as chancellor.
Sunak was reportedly criticised for not giving enough financial support to households during the Covid-19 lockdown. Reuters reported that his tax-and-spend budget in 2021, where the government would impose high taxes on the public to later spend for the public, also placed Britain on course for its largest tax burden in around 70 years, weakening his claims of supporting lower taxes.
During his tenure as chancellor, the UK also faced its highest rate of inflation in 40 years, as consumer prices rose by 9 per cent in April this year, with warnings from the Bank of England that it would increase by another 11 per cent. Consequently, various unions in the UK have begun striking for higher salaries. Last month, Britain faced its biggest rail strike in 30 years, when over 40,000 rail workers took part in a mass walkout and other groups have threatened industrial action as well.
Personal image of Rishi Sunak
The ‘golden boy’ of British politics also suffered personal scandals, when controversy erupted over his wife Akshata Murty’s finances. It was discovered in April that she had non-domicile status in Britain and thus, did not pay tax in the UK on her overseas income. While it was not illegal, the Labour party said it was “breathtaking hypocrisy” for the chancellor’s wife to have a reduced tax bill, while Sunak was raising taxes for millions of workers, reported the BBC.
Following the controversy, Murty announced that she would begin paying UK taxes. Reports indicated that she saved approximately £20 million in taxes on dividends from the shares she held in Infosys.
His image also suffered due to the ‘partygate scandal,’ when media reports and government investigations revealed that government officials including Johnson and Sunak had breached Britain’s strict lockdown rules and attended parties. Both of them were fined by the Metropolitan police for attending Johnson’s birthday party in June 2020.
What next for Sunak?
Despite criticisms against him, polls indicate that Sunak continues to have a high approval rate. A YouGov snap poll of 716 Conservative party members published on July 7 showed Sunak to be the third most popular Tory candidate, behind Minister of State for Trade Policy Penny Mordaunt and with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace leading the pack.
Various senior Conservative MP’s have publicly backed Sunak’s candidacy and promoted his ‘Ready for Rishi’ campaign, which according to the BBC includes Oliver Dowden, who resigned as party chairman in June and Mark Spencer, the Leader of the House of Commons.
It will take 2-3 months for us to know if the UK will have its first Indian-origin prime minister. The 1992 Committee of backbench Tory MP’s (ministers who do not hold government or opposition
Comments
Post a Comment