Britain’s first non-White Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak started delivering on his “work would begin immediately” promise within hours of his meeting with King Charles II. Sunak, promising to act to unite the country, began to make appointments to his cabinet team of top ministers.
Sunak said he was not daunted by the scale of the challenge as he became Britain’s third prime minister in two months, pledging to lead the country through an economic crisis and rebuild trust in politics.
Within hours, Sunak began to appoint his cabinet team and made two crucial appointments by evening — Dominic Raab as the Deputy Prime Minister and Jeremy Hunt as finance minister. British lawmaker Suella Braverman was reappointed as interior minister, less than a week after she resigned from the role for breaching government rules.
Braverman had stepped down a day before former prime minister Liz Truss did after breaching email security rules, also voicing concerns about the direction of Truss’s government in her resignation letter. First elected to parliament in 2015, Braverman is regarded as being on the right wing of the governing Conservative Party.
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Moreover, Sunak also asked a string of members of Liz Truss’s team of ministers to step down as a precursor to the announcement of his new cabinet. So far four ministers have been asked to step down — Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, Justice Secretary Brandon Lewis, Work and Pensions Secretary Chloe Smith and Development minister Vicky Ford.
The former hedge fund boss, who has only been in frontline politics for seven years, has been tasked with bringing an end to Conservative infighting and radical changes in policy that have horrified investors and alarmed international allies.
Sunak, who is also among the richest men in the British parliament, is expected to slash spending to plug an estimated 40-billion-pound ($45 billion) hole in the public finances created by an economic slowdown, higher borrowing costs and an energy support scheme.
With his party’s popularity in freefall, he will face growing calls for an election if he ditches too many of the promises that helped elect the Conservative Party in 2019 when then-leader Boris Johnson pledged to invest heavily.
Sunak, who ran the Treasury during the COVID-19 pandemic, promised to put economic stability and confidence at the heart of the agenda. “This will mean difficult decisions to come,” he said, shortly after he accepted King Charles’s request to form a government.
Sunak also vowed to put the public’s needs above politics, in recognition of the growing anger at Britain’s political class and the ideological battles that have raged ever since the historic 2016 vote to leave the European Union.
Financial Turmoil
Workers heading towards London’s financial district said Sunak appeared to be the best of a bad bunch and while some wanted an election now others hoped he would stay until the next scheduled election, due by January 2025.
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Britain’s youngest prime minister for more than 200 years and its first leader of colour, Sunak replaced Truss who resigned after 44 days following a “mini-budget” that sparked turmoil in financial markets.
He will now need to review all spending, including on politically sensitive areas such as health, education, defence, welfare and pensions.
As he made his first speech as prime minister, to the hundreds of journalists gathered in Downing Street, he struck a more sober tone than those of his predecessors, Truss and Johnson.
He paid tribute to Truss and said her plan to reignite economic growth had not been wrong, but he said mistakes were made: “And I have been elected as leader of my party and your prime minister, in part to fix them.”
As Truss left office, applauded by colleagues and staff, she struck a defiant tone and failed to apologise for the market turmoil that accompanied her seven weeks as prime minister, when the pound collapsed and borrowing and mortgage rates jumped.
Political Machinations
Sunak, a Goldman Sachs analyst who only entered parliament in 2015, also faces a battle to keep the different factions of his warring party on side.
He was blamed by many Conservatives when he quit as finance minister in July, triggering a wider rebellion that brought down Johnson. Others have questioned how a multi-millionaire can lead the country when millions of people are struggling with surging food and energy bills.
Many politicians and officials abroad, having watched as a country once seen as a pillar of economic and political stability descended into brutal infighting, welcomed Sunak’s appointment.
Sunak, a Hindu, also becomes Britain’s first prime minister of Indian origin.
U.S. President Joe Biden described it as a “groundbreaking milestone”, while leaders from India and elsewhere welcomed the news. Sunak’s billionaire father-in-law, N.R. Narayana Murthy, said he would serve the United Kingdom well.
“We are proud of him and we wish him success,” the founder of software giant Infosys said in a statement.
(With input from Reuters)
