Rishi Sunak to become UK’s next prime minister
London: Rishi Sunak has been named the Conservative Party’s new leader unopposed and will become the UK’s first prime minister of Asian descent.
It means the Tories have now delivered the UK three female prime ministers and the country’s first non-Anglo leader, as well as it’s first and only Jewish leader in Benjamin Disraeli.
Sir Graham Brady announced the result to MPs in the Commons.
Rishi Sunak leaving his campaign office in London on Monday, October 24, 2022.Credit:AP
It is a monumental turnaround for the former chancellor who quit Boris Johnson’s cabinet in July and launched a leadership bid but lost to his rival Liz Truss in a vote of party members.
Candidates had until 2pm local time to provide nominations from a minimum 100 MPs.
Sunak was the only candidate to reach the threshold, having secured the public backing of close to 200 of the 357 MPs.
Boris Johnson claimed to have the endorsement of 102 MPs by Sunday night but did not nominate citing party unity, amid widespread speculation that his campaign had stalled and he was unable to reach the threshold.
Penny Mordaunt, who had cast herself as a “halfway house” between Sunak and Johnson failed to reach 100, leaving Sunak the only contender. She pulled out of the race one minute before deadline.
He faces the enormous task of trying to govern a deeply divided government following Liz Truss’ short-lived disastrous reign as well as Boris Johnson’s own chaotic tenure.
Sunak, a practising Hindu, was born in Southampton and is the son of Indians who migrated from East Africa in the 1960s.
Educated at Winchester College, he is a millionaire in his own right, having been a former hedge banker, and is married to the daughter of an Indian billionaire Akshata Murthy. They have two children.
Former foreign minister and high commissioner to the UK, Alexander Downer, said he was excited by the result and believed neither Sunak’s wealth or Asian heritage would not be an issue.
“I’m quite excited about this,” he said, praising Sunak as the first Conservative leader since David Cameron with a grasp of economics.
“He’ll be good actually, he needs more experience, he’s bound to make a few tactical mistakes early on but he’ll get the hang of it – as his life shows, he gets the hang of everything.
Asked whether Sunak’s enormous wealth would be a potent line of political attack for Labour, Downer doubted it would resonate at the ballot box.
“I don’t think it’s a problem that he’s rich,” he said.
“People don’t care about that, most people don’t care whether other people are rich, mainly they care about if they’re rich.
He also said that Sunak’s Asian heritage would quickly go unnoticed.
“For most Brits that won’t matter a jot, it will be neither here nor there for most of them,” he said.
“Britain is a country that had an empire made up of people who are mainly not white, so culturally they’re extremely familiar, particularly with people of Indian heritage.
“And because the Conservative people has had people of colour in all the top jobs of government in recent years and now including the prime minister the people who would really worry about colour would not vote conservative anyway.
“Race is one of those things that you notice at first when you get to know the person you don’t really notice it anymore and I think most Brits will think like that.”
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