Rishi Sunak, first Indian-origin PM of Britain: Key facts

Rishi Sunak is set to become the new British prime minister after garnering almost 200 public nominations from Tory lawmakers.

Sunak would replace Liz Truss, who has resigned after defeating him in a Tory contest less than two months ago. He would serve as the first British-Asian prime minister of the United Kingdom.

Truss took over from a disgraced Boris Johnson, who resigned himself three years into his term after a slew of scandals threatened to bring down his administration. On the other hand, Truss was only in office for 44 days.

Rishi Sunak’s Indian connect

Rishi Sunak was born to an Indian family in the UK’s Southampton area, the son of a pharmacist mother and a National Health Service (NHS) general practitioner father. The grandparents of Rishi Sunak are from Punjab. 

Sunak’s family moved to East Africa in search of a better life, but as unrest erupted there due to strong anti-Indian sentiments, his grandfather changed his base to Britain.

Personal life

Sunak is a Stanford and Oxford University alumni. He is married to Akshata Murthy, the daughter of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy. The couple has two daughters, Anoushka and Krishna.

His political life

In 2015, Sunak was first elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) in Richmond, Yorkshire. He quickly advanced through the Conservative party’s ranks and backed “Brexit” calls. Sunak participated in Johnson’s “leave EU” campaign as one of his backers. When he was appointed to the most important UK Cabinet position, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in February 2020, he made history.

During the Covid-19 epidemic, Sunak rose to prominence for his economic support for workers and businesses that included a job retention scheme that is said to have prevented widespread unemployment in the UK.

Sunak’s reputation suffered as a result of the ‘partygate’ scandal, which involved him violating Covid norms and organising lockdown parties at government offices. This eventually led to a crisis in the Johnson administration.

He was also chastised for his wealthy wife’s non-domiciled tax status. The tax status allows a person born in another country, or whose parent was born in another country, to pay tax in the UK only on income earned in the country.