Ahead of his spectacular row with Boris Johnson, former Treasury Secretary Rishi Sunak enjoyed a meteoric rise that could still end up being installed as Britain’s first prime minister of colour.
It would be a historic milestone if the Hindu descendant of immigrants from the ancient British Empire in India and East Africa took command of the world’s fifth largest economy.
But after reaching the final runoff after a string of votes by Conservative MPs, Sunak must first convince the party’s grassroots members — and hope Johnson loyalists overlook his role in toppling the scandal-tainted leader.
A detail-oriented politics wink, Sunak, 42, was an early supporter of Brexit and took over as Chancellor of the Exchequer in February 2020.
It was a baptism of fire for the rising Tory star as the Covid pandemic hit.
He was forced to rush into an enormous economic aid package that he now says must be paid out.
Sunak is better known in India through his wife Akshata Murty. She is the daughter of Indian tycoon Narayana Murthy, the billionaire co-founder of information technology group Infosys.
The Sunaks met while attending college in California and have two young daughters — along with a photogenic dog.
The ex-minister’s Instagram-friendly profile earned him the media nickname “Dishy Rishi”.
But Sunak, who was already wealthy from his pre-political career in hedge funds, is battling criticism that he is out of touch with ordinary Britons grappling with a cost-of-living crisis.
Video footage emerged this week of a 21-year-old Sunak describing his mix of friends after studying at Winchester College, one of the UK’s most exclusive private schools, and the University of Oxford.
“I have friends who are aristocrats, I have friends who are upper class, I have friends who are working class,” he said, before adding, “Well, not working class.”
– party gate fine –
Until last year, Sunak held a US green card – which critics say indicates a lack of long-term loyalty to the UK.
And he’s bound to be faced with fresh questions about Murty’s failure to pay UK taxes on her Infosys earnings, which opinion polls have found voters to frown upon.
Sunak has already been scarred by the scandals surrounding Johnson’s tumultuous premiership.
In 2020 he celebrated the Hindu Diwali festival by lighting oil lamps on the front step of the Chancellor’s official residence at 11 Downing Street – while urging other Hindus to abide by England’s Covid lockdown.
On the same evening of November 13, 2020, Johnson and his partner Carrie allegedly broke lockdown by partying with friends to celebrate the ouster of his then-chief adviser Dominic Cummings.
The apparent rule-breaking and history of mendacity associated with the “Partygate” premiere contrasts with teetotaler Sunak, who only admits a penchant for Coca-Cola and sugary confectionery.
But he still ended up with a police sentence for Partygate after attending a birthday party for Johnson when he arrived early for a Downing Street meeting.
– Waiter to Riches –
Sunak was little known to the British public when Johnson appointed him Chancellor after just five years in Conservative politics.
He was the first person born in the 1980s to hold one of the so-called four major offices of state: prime minister, chancellor, foreign minister and interior minister.
He represents the Richmond constituency in Yorkshire, northern England – a safe Conservative seat he took over in 2015 from former party leader and Foreign Secretary William Hague, who described Sunak as “extraordinary”.
As a member of parliament, Sunak swears his oath of allegiance to the Bhagavad Gita. Theresa May gave him his first government job in January 2018, making him junior minister for local government, parks and troubled families.
Sunak’s grandparents were originally from Punjab in northern India and emigrated to Britain from East Africa in the 1960s.
They arrived with “very little,” Sunak told MPs in his inaugural address in 2015.
His father was a family doctor in Southampton on the southern coast of England and his mother ran a local pharmacy.
Sunak served tables at a local Indian restaurant before going to Oxford and then Stanford University in California.
Both his own family’s and his wife’s experiences are a “very conservative” story of hard work and endeavour, Sunak said at a moody candidate debate last week.
The coming weeks will decide if that resonates with most Tory members.
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