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Monday 24 October 2022

The extraordinary rise of Rishi Sunak: Britain’s youngest, richest and first Hindu Prime Minister

 These are just some of the accolades that have been attributed to Rishi Sunak, Britain’s new Prime Minister, during his meteoric rise into Downing Street over recent years.

When the former Chancellor and former leadership candidate — nicknamed “goldenballs” and “Dishy Rishi” — officially takes over as Liz Truss’ replacement this week, he will become the country’s first ever non-white, Hindu PM; its youngest ever leader — and the first ever occupant of of Number 10 to be richer than the monarch in Buckingham Palace (his estimated £730m fortune is double that of King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla’s estimated £300-350m wealth). Given the UK is experiencing its worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation, no wonder not all voters are delighted by prospect of him becoming the country’s new leader.

Sunak, 42, might be “insanely rich”, but his supporters have shut-down criticisms that this means he’s “out of touch”, saying he’s the steady pair of hands our country needs at a time of economic turmoil. While Truss has been largely criticised for her “disastrous” mini-budget and subsequent financial U-turns, Sunak — a mostly highly-regarded former Chancellor — is widely considered a voice of calm and reason and economic competence. As an ardent critic of Truss’ unsustainable decision to cut taxes, he can at the very least claim to have spent the 45 days of Truss’s premiership being quietly proven right. “I want to fix our economy, unite our Party and deliver for our country,” he said in a statement this weekend.

Sunak, the Oxford-educated son of two pharmacists, is the first leadership candidate to reach the backing of 100 fellow MPs and now becomes the UK’s 57th Prime Minister (and its third of 2022). Nadhim Zahawi, James Cleverley and Priti Patel were among the big name MPs to back him for leadership and polls suggest he was the most popular choice among the public, too....<<<Read More>>>...