Before beginning his mandate, Rishi Sunak has already made history: He is the first leader of the British Conservative Party and Prime Minister to be a member of a ethnic minority, of non-white Race, the first hindu, the younger since the 18th century, at the age of 42, and at this time the deputy richer of Parliament.
Also read: Johnson announces that he will not run again as Prime Minister.
Liz Truss’s ultraliberal plans were fanciful
Rising as the only candidate to succeed Liz Truss, forced last week by the Conservatives themselves to leave power after only a month and a half in which they sowed chaos with their fiscal policies, Sunak revenge is now taken.
In September, he lost to her in the race to replace Boris Johnson despite warning that the economic plans ultraliberals of his rival were “fanciful” in times of high inflation.
This prudence, which earned him the label of “socialist” by some members of the right, now designates him as the right person to reassure the markets and stabilize a economy threatened with recession.
All this despite the fact that many Britons see him as a very rich technocrat disconnected from the life of the population and Johnson’s supporters consider him the “traitor” who, with his resignation as Finance Minister in July, triggered the fall of the controversial leader
Sunak culminates with his election today as leader of the tories” a meteoric career that began when in 2015 he won his seat in the House of Commons.
He gets the keys to number 10 Downing Street in the middle of the Divali festival (the most important festival in India and therefore a special moment for him), after coming second in the previous internal elections to succeed Boris Johnson, which Truss won on September 6.
Sunak, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer before he resigned in July from the Johnson Government, finds himself faced with a bitterly divided Conservative Party, an economy on the verge of recession and a United Kingdom with its reputation damaged by its recent political and economic upheaval.
First Hindu ruling the UK
Today I visited the Bhaktivedanta Manor temple with my wife Akshata to celebrate Janmashtami, in advance of the popular Hindu festival celebrating Lord Krishna’s birthday. pic.twitter.com/WL3FQVk0oU
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) August 18, 2022
After only five years in the Conservative Party, Sunak, unknown to the general public despite being the richest deputy in the United Kingdom, was appointed head of Finance by Johnson in February 2020.
He thus became the first Briton of Indian origin and Hindu religion to hold that portfolio. In the past he has taken an oath on the Bhagavad Gita, a holy book of Hinduism, written in Sanskrit. And now he becomes the first head of government of that denomination, and the first non-white, just as Diwali, a major five-day Hindu holiday, begins.
A month after his arrival at the government in 2020the outbreak of the pandemic quickly allowed him to differentiate himself from the controversial image of his boss: thanks to a massive public aid package Sunak rose as one of the most popular members of the government, while Johnson He was harshly criticized for his erratic management of the health crisis.
The image of the two politicians contrasts like night from day. With air of first of the class, Sunak he is super-organized and meticulous, always combed, dressed in elegant designer clothes and an eternal smile on his lips. He claims not to drink alcohol and takes extreme care of his image of seriousness and modernity on social networks, where he was criticized for appearing with very expensive technological devices that illustrate how his life differs from that of the average Briton.
From finance to power
After a lucrative stage in the financial sector, Sunak was elected MP for Richmond, in the English county of North Yorkshire, in 2015 and began to stand out on the right wing of the Conservatives with his support for Brexit in the 2016 referendum.
Thanks to this, he was appointed by Johnson Chief Secretary of the Treasury on July 24, 2019 and promoted to Economy Minister on February 13, 2020 in replacement of Sajid Javid. His resignation on July 5 precipitated the fall of his boss, which strained relations between the two.
During his time at the head of the public treasury, he was praised for his employment protection plan during the pandemic, but he was criticized for insufficient aid to citizens in the face of rampant inflation and a tax increase that he later partially reversed due to pressure from his colleagues.
Your proposal now as chief executive it is raise taxes to control inflation and grow the economy with measures still to be specified, in a return to the fiscal conservatism absent in the plan of its predecessor.
Before entering politics, Sunak held positions at several financial firms, including the investment bank Goldman Sachs and the venture capital fund The children’s investment Fund Management.
In 2010 he joined another fund manager, Theleme Partners, and was a director of Catamaran Ventures, owned by his father-in-law, Indian millionaire NR Narayana Murthy.
His personal life
Born on May 12, 1980 in Southampton, on the south coast of England, he is the eldest of three children of a general practitioner and a pharmacist. Originating from India, his grandparents emigrated to British East Africa in the 1960s.
Sunak, who claims to have been victim of racism in a fast food restaurant as a teenager, studied at the WinchesterCollege, an elegant private boarding school for boys, and studied politics, philosophy and economics at the prestigious British universities of Oxford and American of Stanford.
It was in California where he met his wife, the extremely wealthy Indian heiress Akshata Murty, daughter of tech giant co-founder infosys, with whom he has two daughters. A defender of Brexit, Sunak declares himself a fan of cricket, football and the “Star Wars” film saga.
Before entering politics, he earned millions working as an investment banker at firms like Goldman Sachs and founded his own finance company. Last May he became the first UK senior politician to make the list of great fortunes.
He and his wife have an estimated net worth of 730 million pounds (910 million dollars, 860 million euros). His popularity waned when, once restrictions were lifted by the coronavirus, cut aid and began raising taxes to meet the budget orthodoxy.
For me, being conservative means being responsible for money, both for people and for public finances
“For me, being a conservative means being responsible for money, both that of the people and that of public finances,” he justified himself before members of his party who criticized him for this unpopular policy.
Although relatively unknown to the general public, the image of Sunak suffered a setback last April when he was fined along with Johnson for participating in one of the parties that violated the anticovid rules in the offices of Downing Streetfor which he apologized, although he always defended that he was only passing through.
His image was also damaged by a scandal about his wife’s advantageous tax status. Registered as “not domiciled” in the United Kingdom, Murty avoided paying taxes in the country for his millionaire income abroad. The maneuver was legal but was so badly perceived that she ended up having to change your tax situation.
With a personal fortune estimated at £730 million (841 million euros), his ability to empathize with the most disadvantaged classes and to connect with the electorate in the face of the next general elections, scheduled for 2024, is also questioned.
Sunak, who presents himself as a dynamic politician inspired by the creativity of the American Silicon Valley, has confessed that he is addicted to Coca Cola and a super fan of Star Wars.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from EFE and AFP.
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