Indian-origin UK politician Rishi Sunak’s campaign to become Prime Minister of Britain following Boris Johnson’s retirement on July 7, 2022, gained support from Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab and transport minister Grant Shapps who opted to abandon his leadership bid to support Sunak.
Rishi Sunak, 41, was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2020 to 2022 after previously serving as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2019 to 2020. Rishi Sunak is a Conservative Party member who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Richmond since 2015.
Who Is Rishi Sunak?
Sunak studied at Winchester College after being born in Southampton to Punjabi Hindu parents who were reared among the Southeast African Indian diaspora. He then studied philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE) at Lincoln College in Oxford before earning an MBA as a Fulbright Scholar from Stanford University in California.
Rishi Sunak was born on May 12, 1980. Sunak studied at Winchester College after being born in Southampton to Punjabi Hindu parents who were reared among the Southeast African Indian diaspora. He then studied philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE) at Lincoln College in Oxford before earning an MBA as a Fulbright Scholar from Stanford University in California.
He then studied philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE) at Lincoln College in Oxford before earning an MBA as a Fulbright Scholar from Stanford University in California.
He met Akshata Murty, the daughter of N. R. Narayana Murthy and Sudha Murthy who founded Infosys while attending Stanford University, where they then got married. Following graduation, he worked for Goldman Sachs before becoming a partner at The Children’s Investment Fund Management and Theleme Partners, two hedge fund companies.
Member of Parliament
In October 2014, Sunak was elected as the Conservative candidate for Richmond (Yorks), defeating Wendy Morton. The seat had previously been held by William Hague, a former Conservative Party leader, Foreign Secretary, and First Secretary of State who elected not to run in the following general election.
At the general election in 2017, Sunak won re-election with a majority of 23,108 votes (40.5 percent). Between January 2018 to July 2019, he held the position of parliamentary undersecretary of state for local government.
On all three occasions, Sunak voted in favor of the Brexit separation agreement put out by then-prime minister Theresa May and opposed a second referendum on any withdrawal agreement.
He backed Boris Johnson in the June 2019 contest for the leadership of the Conservative Party.
On July 24, 2019, Prime Minister Boris Johnson named Sunak as the chief secretary to the Treasury, reporting to Chancellor Sajid Javid. The following day, he was admitted to the Privy Council.
Sunak won re-election in the general election of 2019 with a majority gain of 27,210. (47.2 percent ). Sunak represented the Conservatives in the seven-way election debates on both the BBC and ITV during the election campaign.
As Chancellor, Sunak played a significant role in the financial reaction of the government to the COVID-19 epidemic and its effects on the economy, including the Coronavirus Job Retention and Eat Out to Help Out programs.
He received a fixed penalty notice for violating COVID-19 laws during lockdowns, making him the first Chancellor of the Exchequer in British history to have been punished for breaking the law while in office. This occurred during the Partygate controversy. On July 5, 2022, he announced his retirement as chancellor. In his letter of resignation, he cited the disagreements Johnson and he had on economic policy.
He declared his candidacy for the position of Conservative Party leader to replace Johnson on July 8, 2022. He received the most votes among Conservative MPs on July 20 and is now facing Liz Truss in a postal ballot among party members. The results will be made public on September 5 of 2022.
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