Rishi Sunak Chosen As New Prime Minister Of The United Kingdom

Rishi Sunak is the UK’s newest Prime Minister after he was chosen as leader of the Conservative Party. (Wikimedia Commons).

Rishi Sunak became the United Kingdom’s prime minister on October 25, after he won the Conservative Party’s leadership race to replace former Prime Minister Liz Truss, who resigned on October 20 after only forty-five days in office. Truss had the shortest premiership in the history of the UK, which ended after her budget proposal caused economic panic and mistrust that continued even after Truss rolled back her plan. 

Sunak began his career in finance and became very wealthy before winning a seat in Parliament in 2015. Under Truss’ predecessor, Boris Johnson, Sunak served as chancellor and gained popularity by funding pandemic relief programs. Sunak finished second behind Truss in the Conservative Party leadership campaign to replace Johnson, and was widely expected to win the most recent race for the premiership, despite his relative inexperience serving as an elected representative. 

Sunak’s premiership became official after he met with King Charles III on October 25. Truss met with the king to officially resign as Prime Minister days earlier. 

Sunak made history by being the first person of color and the first Hindu to serve as Britain’s Prime Minister; his parents have Indian heritage and immigrated to Great Britain from colonial East Africa. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Sunak on Twitter, expressing his hopes for a close working relationship.
By contrast, Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, grilled Sunak during his first Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons. Starmer called for general elections to democratically elect the next prime minister in a tweet following Truss’ resignation.