In a historical milestone, the U.K appointed its first prime minister of color, Rishi Sunak on October 25, 2022. Sunak is the son of Indian immigrants and won the Conservative Party contest to secure his new position. Prior to serving as prime minister, Sunak was the Conservative MP for Richmond (Yorks) in 2015 and the Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy since June of 2017. Additionally, before his political career, Sunak was the co-founder of an investment firm and utilized this business venture to assist smaller British companies expand.
Sunak has gained control as Britain’s 57th Prime Minister following Liz Truss, who only held office for fifty days. According to The New York Times, he worked to create a cabinet joined together by continuity and stability, with Jeremy Hunt being one of his most significant appointments as chancellor of the Exchequer. Additionally, Sunak kept James Cleverly for the foreign secretary post and Ben Wallace as defense secretary. Suella Braverman, who resigned the previous week due to a breach of security rules, was also re-appointed as home secretary. Since Sunak was formerly the chancellor of Exchequer, it is predicted that he will navigate Britain back into mainstream policies after Truss’s unsuccessful attempt of trickle-down economics. Sunak notes that her policies were “not born of bad intentions” but describes them as “mistakes nonetheless.”
Rishi Sunak has not reached this level of success in his political career without controversy, however, and many critics question how his immense wealth could limit his leadership.
According to The Times of London, “Mr. Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty, were worth more than $800 million, and this week, as Mr. Sunak emerged as the winner of the Tory leadership contest, critics immediately picked up on that.”
Critics are concerned that Sunak’s wealth renders him out of touch and jeopardizes his ability to govern a country where many citizens are living in opposition to his financial conditions. This accusation is not helped by the fact that his government is expected to roll out public spending cuts and tax increases to lower debt levels.
Nadia Whittome, a member of Parliament with the Labour Party, criticized Sunak’s wealth on Twitter by writing, “Remember this whenever he talks about making ‘tough decisions’ that working-class people will pay for.”
On top of criticism for his financial standings, Sunak’s rise to power has spurred growing demands for the government to call a general election. Britain has had two prime ministers appointed in under two months with only a select percentage of the public having a direct effect on the choice. Sunak was appointed by roughly two hundred Conservative Party lawmakers. Back in September, Liz Truss claimed victory in a runoff party leadership election where less than one percent of the population voted. When Truss announced her resignation, 63% of people polled by YouGov indicated that they believed a general election should be called. After it was announced that Sunak was appointed the new prime minister, 56% of people surveyed by YouGov indicated that they believed he should call an early general election. Britain’s general election system does not directly place a prime minister into office and instead allows members of the public to vote for lawmakers to represent their local constituency of the House of Commons. The individual remains in the seat until Parliament dissolves, and if one party wins the majority of the seats, the party’s leader claims the position of prime minister.
Rishi Sunak’s appointment as both the first prime minister of color and youngest individual to hold the position is historic. United States President Joe Biden noted that Sunak’s leadership was “a groundbreaking milestone” and world leaders from India and other locations acknowledged its significance as well. Although he faces various political challenges, Sunak hopes to settle them through his goals of bringing continuity and stability to the U.K.