A few days ago, the name Rishi Sunak was all over the social media platforms and publications in India. Why else wouldn't it be the case? Because he became the country's first prime minister of "Indian descent." Because he is only 42 and is regarded as one of the wealthiest MPs, he is also the youngest UK prime minister in the 210-year history of Britain.
PM Sunak and his wife Akshata Murthy are reportedly worth a combined £730 million, double the fortune of King Charles III and Camilla, the Queen Consort (£300-£350 million), according to The Guardian. It will be up to him to restore some measure of prosperity to a country that is experiencing severe economic hardship.
Individual Life
Sunak was born to Indian parents on May 12th, 1980 in Southampton, Hampshire, South East England. His mother, Usha Sunak, is a pharmacist, while his father, Yashvir, is a retired doctor. The children of Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murthy are Krishna and Anoushka. Akshata is the daughter of Infosys co-founder Narayan Murthy. Although his grandparents were British Indians, they were born in Gujranwala, which is now in the country of Pakistan.
Education
Since his early years in school, Rishi Sunak has excelled academically. He was a standout student at the public boarding school Winchester College, where he also served as the newspaper editor and head boy. He then finished his studies at Oxford's Lincoln College and received his diploma. He completed an internship at the Conservative Campaign Headquarters during his graduation. He thereafter traveled to the USA where he attended Stanford University to finish his MBA.
A career in Business for Rishi Sunak
He was employed as a business analyst at the investment bank Goldman Sachs from 2001 to 2004, after which he resigned in order to join TCI, where he was made a partner in September 2006. Then, in 2009, he joined Theleme Partners, another hedge fund company. Additionally, he was a director of N. R. Narayana Murthy, his father-in law's-business owner of Catamaran Ventures.
Politics in Rishi Sunak's career
In 2010, Rishi Sunak began serving the Republican Party. He was affiliated with Policy Exchange, the top thinks tank for the party. He took over as the organization's Black & Ethnic Minority (BME) research unit's director in 2014. He was selected as the Conservative Party's nominee to represent Richmond in the House of Commons that same year. He was chosen as Richmond, Virginia's (US) MP in 2015, and he hasn't turned back since.
He participated on the Environment, Food, & Rural Affairs select committee from 2015 to 2017. He was appointed to his first ministerial position in 2018 as the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government's Undersecretary of State. He developed into a fervent supporter of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and in July 2019, after Johnson won reelection to office, he was given the position of Chief Secretary to the Treasury. In February 2020, Sunak, who had just turned 39, took Sajid Javid's place as Finance Minister (Chancellor of the Exchequer), making him the fourth-youngest person to ever hold the role.
Politics in Rishi Sunak's career
In 2010, Rishi Sunak began serving the Republican Party. He was affiliated with Policy Exchange, the top think tank for the party. He took over as the organization's Black & Ethnic Minority (BME) research unit's director in 2014. He was selected as the Conservative Party's nominee to represent Richmond in the House of Commons that same year. He was chosen as Richmond, Virginia's (US) MP in 2015, and he hasn't turned back since.
He participated on the Environment, Food, & Rural Affairs select committee from 2015 to 2017. He was appointed to his first ministerial position in 2018 as the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government's Undersecretary of State. He developed into a fervent supporter of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and in July 2019, after Johnson won reelection to office, he was given the position of Chief Secretary to the Treasury. In February 2020, Sunak, who had just turned 39, took Sajid Javid's place as Finance Minister (Chancellor of the Exchequer), making him the fourth-youngest person to ever hold the role.
The top two candidates for the position of prime minister after PM Johnson announced his resignation in July 2022 were Rishi Sunak and then-foreign secretary Liz Truss, who both faced a vote by the party's entire membership. However, when the election results were made public on September 5, Truss received 57.4% of the vote against Sunak's 42.6 percent, making Truss the new party leader.
The shortest office tenure ever was held by Truss. Her resignation was being called for by more and more Conservative Party MPs in just six weeks. The primary cause of this was her attempt to impose an unfunded tax cut of £45 billion ($50 billion) and cap energy prices for two years, both of which were expected to worsen the budget deficit and cause the financial markets to panic. Truss announced her resignation on October 20. The first British Prime Minister with Indian ancestry was made possible thanks to Rishi Sunak's backing this time from the majority of Conservative Party MPs.
Challenges of Rishi Sunak
PM Will Face Rishi Sunak inherits a political and economic crisis in the UK that is unprecedented in scope. The objective measure of his leadership in a problem will be his decisions. But Britain's economic issues existed for a very long time before Sunak even entered politics. The British economy has mostly been stagnant since the global financial crisis of 2008. The vote to exit the European Union made things worse because it was harder for Britain to conduct business with its main trading partners. This choice consequently had an impact on small companies across the nation. The disruption of COVID and the war in Ukraine during this time of lower GDP were terrible for the British economy.
All of these elements combined to produce the current ratio of revenues to current spending, which changed from being in surplus to having a deficit of more than 11%. In Britain, the inflation rate, which typically hovers around 2.5%, has skyrocketed to approximately 10% at the moment. Millions of individuals in Britain are being pushed into poverty by the rising cost of living.
In conclusion, I'll remark that the political and economic climate in Britain is so dire that Rishi Sunak doesn't even have time to acknowledge his success. The British economy could only be saved from plunging into a severe recession with a clear plan in place and tremendous willingness.