Former British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, has won the race to become the United Kingdom’s new Prime Minister after winning the ruling Conservative Party’s leadership contest.
Sunak, an Indian descendant, won the race on Monday, days after the sudden resignation of Liz Truss last week following her disastrous tax cuts plans and policy U-turns which plunged the UK markets into chaos, leading to an unprecedented economic crisis.
Sunak got the nod by winning the required support of 150 MPs, beating his only challenger, Penny Mordaunt, leader of the House of Commons and former defence minister, who got the backing of only 30 MPs.
Sunak and Mordaunt had lost out to Truss in the race to appoint a new leader after then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson was forced to resign in July following a wave of scandals linked to parties hosted during the coronavirus lockdown.
Mordaunt’s withdrawal meant that Sunak was the only leadership candidate and the contest ended without the need for an online vote by Conservative party members.
Sunak, 42, is younger than both Tony Blair and David Cameron when they became prime minister. His Indian grandparents emigrated to Britain from east Africa and he grew up in Southampton.
Although he won the overwhelming backing of Tory MPs, Sunak is a divisive figure in the Tory party, with many supporters of Johnson accusing him of undermining his premiership when he quit as chancellor in July.
Sunak now faces a daunting in-tray, including a crisis in the public finances, high inflation, stretched public services, industrial unrest, soaring energy bills and even the possibility of blackouts in the new year.
Sunak, a fiscal conservative who has vowed to “fix the economy,” promised in a statement on Saturday: “There will be integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level of the government I lead.”