Rishi Sunak is UK’s 1st Indian-origin PM

LONDON,

RISHI Sunak has become the new UK Prime Minister after meeting King Charles III at Buckingham Palace.

Sunak is now the UK’s 57th Prime Minister after being asked to form a Government by King Charles III. He is the third Prime Minister this year and will enter Downing Street as the youngest PM in two centuries.

On Monday, former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak became the Conservative Party leader less than two months after he lost to Liz Truss in the Tory leadership race. Sunak’s change in fate was triggered by the resignation of Truss after high-profile sackings and resignations in her Cabinet, following a heavily criticised mini-budget that left the UK pound tumbling.

Newly-appointed British Prime Minster Rishi Sunak said on Tuesday that he has been elected to fix some of the “mistakes” made by his predecessor as he promised to place “economic stability and confidence” at the heart of his Government’s agenda.

The 42-year-old devout Hindu formally took charge as Britain’s first Indian-origin Prime Minister after an audience with King Charles III on Tuesday, a day after he was elected the new leader of the Conservative Party in a historic leadership run. The investment banker-turned politician is the youngest British Prime Minister in 210 years. Speaking outside 10, Downing Street here - the Prime Minister’s official residence, Sunak said he would confront the “profound economic crisis” with compassion and lead a Government of “integrity, professionalism and accountability.” Sunak said that he has been chosen as leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister to “fix the mistakes” made by his predecessor Liz Truss.

“That work begins immediately,” he added. Rishi Sunak became Britain’s third Prime Minister of the year on Tuesday and now must turn his attention to taming an economic crisis that has left the country’s finances in a precarious State and millions of Britons struggling to afford food and energy bills. Sunak’s victory in the Tory leadership race came at the end of a dramatic few days in Westminster since Liz Truss resigned last Thursday in the wake of a disastrous tax-cutting mini-budget and several policy U-turns.

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson ruling himself out from the contest over the weekend and Leader of the Commons Penny Mordaunt conceding defeat just moments before the shortlisting deadline on Monday paved the way for a remarkable political comeback for Sunak – having lost the Tory membership vote to Truss just last month.

However, his popularity as the frontrunner among his party colleagues was replicated yet again as more than half the Tory MPs came out publicly in his support. He now faces the enormous challenge of steering the UK economy through massive inflationary turbulence and also uniting the different wings of a divided Conservative Party.

Meanwhile, outgoing Prime Minister Liz Truss has officially become the shortest-serving PM in UK history after she was forced to step down just 45 days into office.

Proud of him: Narayana Murthy on Rishi Sunak: “We are proud of him and wish him success,” Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy said in his first comments on the elevation of his son-in-law Rishi Sunak as Britain’s Prime Minister. “Congratulations to Rishi. We are proud of him and we wish him success,” Murthy said in first first reaction emailed to PTI. “We are confident he will do his best for the people of the United Kingdom.” The son of a pharmacist mother and doctor father, Sunak was educated at one of England’s most renowned schools, Winchester, and then Oxford. He spent three years at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. And later gained an MBA from Stanford in California, where he met his wife Akshata Murthy, daughter of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy.