UK Premiership ! Is Indian Origin Rishi Sunak In Run For The Post

July 8: Finally on July 7, the beleaguered British prime minister Boris Johnson has announced, quitting from the post. Very dramatically he lost the support of his ministers and most Conservative lawmakers, but said he would stay on until his successor was chosen.

In his announcement from outside 10 Downing Street in London, Johnson said, “It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new prime minister.”

He added, “And I’ve today appointed a Cabinet to serve, as I will, until a new leader is in place. So I want to say to the millions of people who voted for us in 2019, many of them voting Conservative for the first time: Thank you for that incredible mandate, the biggest Conservative majority since 1987, the biggest share of the vote since 1979.

With his exit, bookmakers and much of Britain are speculating about the likely next successor. Any candidates who run for the leadership will go through rounds of voting by Conservative lawmakers until only two remain — at which point Conservative Party members nationwide will vote. The winner will be the new party leader — and the prime minister of UK.

Many believe that the former chancellor, Rishi Sunak, as top contender to be the British prime minister, among the list of candidates, who quit the government two days ago.

Polls among Tory members show that Sunak has a high approval — a YouGov poll on 6-7 July put  Indian origin Rishi Sunak well above former Health Minister Sajid Javid and Home Secretary Priti Patel, with the support of 10 per cent.

Sunak was placed third, behind only Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace (13 per cent) and Minister of State for Trade Policy Penny Mordaunt (12 per cent).

Who exactly is Rishi Sunak?

The 42-year-old Rishi Sunak was born in UK’s Southampton area to an Indian family of a pharmacist mother and a National Health Service (NHS) general practitioner (GP) father. His grandparents are from Punjab. Reports say that like many Indians, they had migrated to seek a better life in East Africa. When trouble began in the region and there was widespread feeling against Indians, his grandfather shifted to Britain.

An Oxford University and Stanford graduate, he met his present wife, Akshata Murthy while at school. For the uninitiated, Akshata Murty is the daughter of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy. The two tied the knot in 2009 and have two daughters Krishna and Anoushka.

An analyst with Goldman Sachs, he first became an MP in 2015. He was elected from Richmond, Yorkshire and rose through the Conservative Party ranks and backed calls for Brexit. He was one of the supporters of Boris Johnson during his ‘Leave EU’ campaign.

Sunak was barely known to the British public when Johnson made him Chancellor of the exchequer in February 2020.

However, UK’s first Hindu Chancellor of the Exchequer charmed the citizens and his popularity star shone bright.

When Boris Johnson ordered the first nationwide lockdown owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, he crafted a massive financial rescue package to safeguard millions of jobs. His job retention scheme where the government paid 80 per cent of the wages of people who would otherwise be without a job won him accolades across the board.

His popularity shot up and surpassed that of his boss Boris Johnson. His ‘eat out to help out’ scheme was also a huge success.

Known to be close to Johnson, Sunak has always cut a contrasting figure from the scandal-ridden outgoing prime minister in his public and private life.

Sunak is a details-oriented wonk. Unlike Johnson’s tousled hair and disheveled appearance, Sunak has crafted a carefully curated image on social media, with designer clothes, top-of-the-range gadgets and photogenic.

Despite his recent downturn, many believe that Sunak is the top contender to the prime minister’s post and bookmakers and surveys back it up.

A survey by JL Partners, a polling company, suggests Sunak, the chancellor who quit Johnson’s government this week, is in the lead with the public out of the main candidates.

According to one Conservative Party MP from the party’s One Nation grouping was quoted by The Guardian saying they supported Sunak, a Eurosceptic and right-winger, “purely on the basis that he is clearly the most competent”.

We take a closer look at the rise of Sunak and why India has gone into overdrive over the possibility of him being the prime minister of the world’s fifth largest economy.

Sunak, who is of Indian origin, was in surveys earlier in the year being touted as a front-runner for the PM’s post.

But after he introduced taxes to reduce the borrowings caused by bailing out lives and livelihoods during the Covid-19 pandemic, his popularity was dented.

A controversy over his Indian wife’s tax affairs further damaged his reputation. There is no certainty that he will put himself up for the test.