Rishi Sunak UK’s Prime Minister Of South Asian Heritage

Sunak becomes the fifth UK Prime Minister in the five years

Sunak, the runner-up to Truss in a long drawn-out leadership race, is now set to take the top position in the United Kingdom. Sunak also becomes the fifth U.K. Prime Minister within the last five years.

“It is the greatest privilege of my life to be able to serve the party I love, and to be able to give back to the country I owe so much to,” Sunak said.

Sunak was the clear choice to replace Liz Truss as Prime Minister after she tendered her resignation to King Charles only six weeks after taking office.

Truss’ faced significant backlash to her unfunded tax cuts to jumpstart the economy and drive down inflation. However, doing so sent the U.K. financial markets and World Markets into free fall, prompting members within her own party to immediately call for her resignation and that of her finance minister.

Truss, however, did push back and asserted she was the right person to lead the U.K. through its current economic situation and forge A new path post covid. However, the damage has already been done. Multiple party members threatened to quit the cabinet as they no longer had confidence in her ability to govern.

Sunak became the youngest Prime Minister in U.K. history within 200 years. He also was the only candidate with the minimum required support from 100 lawmakers to become a candidate and more that have the Conservative support in the government, essentially winning the leadership race by acclamation.

Sunak, the former finance minister under Boris Johnson and formally Chancellor of the Exchequer, the U.K.’s Treasury, will have his work cut out for him.

Gas and energy prices have skyrocketed, inflation is making it impossible for homeownership and trust in government are at an all-time low. Many of these issues can be traced back to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, and the country still has not fully recovered from the global pandemic.

Sunak is seen as a centurist and well-liked by the party and is said to be a lot more steady leader than Truss. The next U.K general election is not until January 2025. Still, with the way the U.K Prime Ministers are resigning at a record pace after stabilizing the economy, Sunak should look to last more than six weeks.

Image source Sunak social media