A British born Indian, Rishi Sunak, was elected as leader of the UK Conservative Party. It comes with the Prime Ministerial position. Sunak entered Parliament in 2015, elected as the representative of Yorkshire. In 2020, he was picked by Prime Minister Boris Johnson as Chancellor of the Exchequer, or treasury chief. In June 2022, he resigning in protest against violations of morality and ethics by Johnson. Sunak’s resignation from the cabinet ignited a wave of cabinet resignations that toppled Johnson. Johnson, who once described Sunak as a potential successor to him, blamed Sunak for his fall from the PM position with Sunak resignation. Johnson vowed never to support Sunak for PM.
Sunak entered into a race for the leadership of the Conservatives after Johnson resigned but he lost to another cabinet colleague Liz Truss who sided with Johnson amidst his morality and ethics crisis. Sunak won the early contests for leadership among party MPs.
Although Sunak had more support among Conservative Party MPs, the members of the party chose Truss as the PM in early September. She resigned six weeks later unable to perform the task to win over the confidence of a majority of MPs. She has not been an effective PM unable to pass bills. He had warned that her economic policy would fail and true to his prediction, her policy roiled the economy triggering opposition from fellow MPs.
Sunak declared his candidacy to succeed Truss on Sunday, stating that he wanted to fix the economy. By Monday morning, he had gained the support of 194 Conservatives, leaving the others far short of crossing the minimum threshold of 100 to have a chance of victory. He needed the support and signature of only 100 MPs to have his candidacy go forward. No other candidate could muster 100 votes. He got 194.
Initially, two other MPs (a Black and a white female) declared their candidacy for leadership – but neither one could garner the 100 votes to forward their candidacy. Boris Johnson, who had resigned in June, cut short his vacation in the Dominican Republic and flew to London and declared his candidacy to return as PM. But he could only muster support from 58 MPs and withdrew from the race. Sunak won unopposed as the other candidates also withdrew. He was invited by the King (Charles III) to form a new government on Tuesday. He is constructing (selecting) his cabinet.
Sunak is a practicing Hindu. He was chosen as leader on Diwali Day and sworn in on Goberdhan Puja Day, the fourth day of Diwali that concludes on Wednesday.
