With no experience in foreign relations or general politics, Rishi Sunak emerges as the necessary leader of the moment
Rishi Sunak was born 42 years ago in Southampton, into a family based in the United Kingdom since his grandmother, more than 60 years ago, sold her wedding jewelery in Tanzania to buy a one-way ticket to the country that fascinated her. She got a job as an accountant and was able to pay with her savings the passage of her husband and her three children. One of them, Shuna, studied Pharmacy. She married a doctor, Yashvir Sunak.
Rishi grew up in an Indian community that is the largest ethnic minority in the United Kingdom, one and a half million according to the last census, and that shows some differences with respect to others of Asian, African or Caribbean origin. British Indians perform better academically and are more likely to vote for the Conservative Party.
An outstanding student, his parents paid for the 40,000 euros per year at the private school in Winchester. From there he went to Oxford University, where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics, the prevalent course among contemporary British politicians. He received an MBA from Stanford. At the Californian university he met his wife, Akshata Murty, the daughter of an Indian billionaire. He was employed in investment banking.
In 2014 he decided to enter politics because, as he explained, the example of his parents encouraged him to dedicate himself to social issues. He was promoted by the party as a candidate in a white, rural constituency in the north of England, Richmond, which has had Conservative MPs since 1910. He has a secured seat in perpetuity, a private fortune and a friendly, open manner.
Members of the Richmond Conservative Association had hoped for a local candidate, but were captivated by his lack of arrogance. He stands out in his interviews for listening carefully to the interlocutor and really answering the questions, something that is not very common in the political class. He held minor posts in Theresa May’s government and was appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury by Boris Johnson.
paradoxes
It is one of the government positions that requires technical knowledge. His boss was Sajid Javid, the son of a family of Pakistani origin established in a neighborhood of Bristol with a reputation for violence. He had also made a fortune in investment banking. His political career had been very fast in a party that wanted to reflect the social diversity of the country. But he collided with Johnson.
After his electoral victory in December 2019, the then Prime Minister’s guru, Dominic Cummings, demanded to appoint advisers to the head of the Treasury, equivalent to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Javid did not accept it. He resigned in February 2020 and Sunak was promoted. He had to prepare at high speed the budget response to the impending economic disaster of the pandemic.
His scheme of subsidies to maintain employment and business activity made him very popular. His detailed explanations in appearances with the messy prime minister immediately made him Johnson’s dauphin. A politician in favor of ‘Brexit’, because he wants a United Kingdom that is more agile than the European Union, and a believer in the benefits of low taxation, he was successful due to the barrage of public spending.
The discovery that his wife was not tax domiciled in the United Kingdom or his efforts to create free zones in port regions of the country have lowered his reputation. His resignation and that of his friend Javid were the first big blows that brought Johnson down. They accused him of being disloyal and of systematically airing his ambitions to replace the prime minister on social media.
The collapse of Liz Truss’s government made him the favorite to replace her. During the long summer campaign, he insisted that his rival’s plan to undo the tax increases he had introduced, as necessary to preserve the financial reputation of the British Treasury, could cause a crisis. After the mess of the former prime minister, he has emerged as the politician who knows what he is talking about.
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