Rishi Sunak: UK At The Helms Of A ‘Proud Hindu’

Bhubaneswar: British Conservative party MP Rishi Sunak scripted history, becoming the United Kingdom’s first Indian-origin prime minister.

Sunak, who is also one of the wealthiest politicians in Westminster, is set to be Britain’s first leader of color.

He will officially be asked to form a Government by King Charles, replacing the former PM Liz Truss who only lasted 44 days in the job before she resigned from the position.

Born on 12 May 1980 in Southampton, to Indian parents Yashvir and Usha Sunak, Rishi is the eldest of his three siblings.

Sunak’s grandparents were born in Punjab Province, British India, and emigrated to the UK in the 1960s from East Africa. His father was a general practitioner while his mother was a pharmacist who ran a local pharmacy.

Rishi Sunak Education

He is an alumnus of Winchester College, Lincoln College, Oxford and Stanford University. During his summer holidays, Sunak waited tables at a curry house in Southampton.

Rishi Sunak’s Business Career

He undertook an internship at Conservative Campaign Headquarters during his time at the university. From 2001 to 2004, he worked as an analyst at Goldman Sachs, an investment bank. He left the job to join The Children’s Investment Fund Management (TCI) and became a partner in September 2006. He joined another hedge fund firm Theleme Partners in 2009.

Sunak tied the knot with Akshata Murthy in August 2009. The couple has two daughters. His wife is the daughter of Indian billionaire N.R. Narayana Murthy and serves as the director at Catamaran Ventures. She also runs her own fashion label and is among the wealthiest women in Britain.

Rishi Sunak’s Political Career

In 2014, he was chosen as the Conservative candidate for Richmond (Yorks). The seat has been held by the Conservative Party for over 100 years now. That year, he headed the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Research Unit of Policy Exchange and co-wrote a report on BME communities in the United Kingdom.

In the 2015 General Election, he was elected as an MP from Richmond (Yorks). From 2015 to 2017, he served as a member of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee.

He was re-elected as MP from the same seat in the 2017 General Election. He served as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary from January 2018 to July 2019. He supported PM Boris Johnson in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election and even co-wrote an article in a British national daily to advocate for Johnson during the campaign in June 2019.

Sunak was re-elected in the 2019 General Election and was appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in July 2019 and served under Chancellor Sajid Javid. He became a member of the Privy Council on 25 July 2019.

After a cabinet reshuffle in February 2020, Sunak was promoted to Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Sunak presented his first budget on 11 March 2020. As the pandemic created a financial impact, Sunak announced the £30 billion of additional spending of which £12 billion was allocated for mitigation of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his March 2021 budget, Sunak announced that the deficit had risen to £355 billion in the FY 2020-2021, the highest in peacetime. He increased the corporation tax from earlier 19 to 25% in 2023, a five-year freeze in the tax-free personal allowance and the higher rate income tax threshold.

At the G7 Summit in June 2021, a tax reform agreement was signed to establish a global minimum tax on multinationals and online technology companies. In October 2021, OECD signed an accord to join the tax reform plan.

In October 2021, he unveiled his third budget which included £5bn for health research and innovation and £3bn for skills education.

Rishi Sunak on Tuesday be installed as Britain’s third prime minister this year. The 42-year-old Hindu will be Britain’s first prime minister of colour and the youngest in more than two centuries.

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