Things To Know About Rishi Sunak, The New British Prime Minister

• Rishi Sunak is the first person of color to become the UK’s Prime Minister
• He was born in Southampton to African-born Hindu parents
• Rishi Sunak is a multi-millionaire former hedge fund boss.
• He had a successful career in finance before entering politics.

Rishi Sunak is the new Prime Minister of Britain; the 42-year-old former finance minister was elected on Monday. Rishi Sunak triumphed after competing for the second time this year. Let’s discuss the things to know about Rishi Sunak, the new British Prime Minister

He was defeated in September by Liz Truss, who resigned six weeks later. Mr. Sunak quickly gained the backing of his colleagues in the recent leadership election. He received the required 100 nominations well before the deadline, even from MPs who had previously supported Truss or Boris Johnson.

The Indian-origin politician now faces a difficult task: restoring stability in a country that has been in political and economic turmoil since voting to exit the European Union in 2016.

Rishi Sunak supporters believe he easily crossed the bar to earn the support of 100 Conservative politicians, advancing him to the next stage of the party’s internal leadership race as more of his colleagues vow their support and plot his eventual ascension.

Sunak has 126 publicly declared Conservative members of Parliament as of late Saturday, compared to Johnson’s 54 and Penny Mordaunt’s 24. According to the BBC, Sunak had 128, Johnson had 53, and Mordaunt had 23.

Here are the things to know about Rishi Sunak, the new British Prime Minister

• Sunak became PM after rival Penny Mordaunt failed to get the backing of 100 lawmakers by 2 p.m.
• He was born on 12 May 1980 in Southampton to African-born Hindu parents of Punjabi-Indian descent
• Rishi Sunak is the first British Asian PM, and also the first person of color to lead the country.
• He’s thought to be one of the richest MPs
• Rishi Sunak, whose Indian-origin parents had emigrated to the UK from East Africa, was born in Southampton in 1980.
• Sunak’s grandparents originated from British India. Their birthplace Gujranwala lies in modern-day Pakistan’s Punjab province.
• He first hit the headlines when, at age 39, he became finance minister under Johnson just as the pandemic hit Britain, developing the successful furlough scheme.
• Rishi Sunak has recently been a somewhat divisive politician — some of his party members hold him responsible for bringing down Boris Johnson.
• He was educated at Winchester College, Oxford University, and Stanford University in California.
• Sunak is married to Akshata Murthy, the daughter of NR Narayana Murthy, one of the founders of IT giant Infosys. They are parents to two daughters.
• Rishi Sunak is a multi-millionaire former hedge fund boss. He had a successful career in finance before entering politics. He is a former Goldman Sachs analyst.
• The finances of Sunak’s family were recently under scrutiny. For some time, Sunak appeared to be in a soup over his wife not paying taxes in Britain on her earnings abroad.
• Murthy eventually agreed to start paying UK tax on her overseas earnings. Her statement relieved the political pressure on her Sunak.
• Rishi Sunak has a net worth of over 700 million pounds. Apart from owning a mansion in Yorkshire, Sunak and his wife Akshata own a property in Kensington in central London.
• Sunak was Britain’s first Hindu chancellor of the exchequer and swore his oath of allegiance in parliament on the Bhagavad Gita. 6. During the UK PM elections this year.
• He was widely regarded as the Conservative party’s rising star.

Things To Know About Rishi Sunak, The New British Prime Minister

Rishi Sunak was elected to the House of Commons in 2015 as the Member of Parliament for Richmond in North Yorkshire, succeeding William Hague. Sunak voted in favor of Brexit in the 2016 EU referendum.

In the 2018 reshuffle, Sunak was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Local Ministry in Theresa May’s second government. He supported May’s Brexit separation agreement three times. Sunak backed Boris Johnson’s campaign for Conservative leader after May quit.

Sunak was appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury by Johnson when he was elected and named Prime Minister. Sunak took over as Chancellor of the Exchequer after Sajid Javid resigned in the February 2020 cabinet reshuffle.

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Business career

Between 2001 to 2004, Rishi Sunak worked as an analyst for the investment bank Goldman Sachs. He later worked with the Children’s Investment Fund Management, where he became a partner in September 2006.

He resigned in November 2009 to join former colleagues in California at Theleme Partners, a new hedge fund business that began in October 2010 with $700 million under management. Patrick Degorce was his employer at both hedge funds.

Between 2013 and 2015, he was also a director of Catamaran Ventures, an investment firm controlled by his father-in-law, Indian industrialist N. R. Narayana Murthy.

Cryptocurrencies and NFTs Interest

Rishi Sunak, as Chancellor, was pushing ahead with a new law that would allow stablecoins to be used for everyday payments, despite the Bank of England’s concerns about the technology’s financial soundness.

Sunak directed the Royal Mint in April 2022 to construct a UK government-backed non-fungible token (NFT) to be released by the summer of 2022.

LGBT+ Equality

Sunak stated that “I want this to be the safest and greatest country in the world to be LGBT+,” he said, adding that “prejudice against trans people is wrong.” The Conservative Party is an open and welcoming family to everyone in society, no matter who they are or what their history is.”

PinkNews, on the other hand, chastised him for a history of anti-trans comments.