London: Rishi Sunak will take over as Britain’s first Indian-origin prime minister after an audience with King Charles III on Tuesday, a day after he was elected the new leader of the Conservative Party in a historic leadership race. Outgoing Prime Minister Liz Truss will chair her final cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street on Tuesday morning, before she makes her way to Buckingham Palace to formally tender her resignation to the 73-year-old monarch.
Sunak, 42, will then arrive at the palace for his meeting with the king, who will formally anoint him as Britain’s new prime minister. The former chancellor will deliver his first prime ministerial address on the steps of 10 Downing Street, which is expected to be attended by wife Akshata Murthy and daughters Krishna and Anushka.
“The UK is a great country, but there is no doubt that we face a profound economic challenge,” Sunak said in his first address as elected prime minister on Monday. “What we need now is stability and unity and I will make it my top priority to bring my party and our country together, because that is the only way we will be able to overcome the challenges we face and be a part of our children and our children.” better, more prosperous future grandchildren,” he said.
Sunak said, “I pledge that I will serve you with honesty and humility and will work day and night to work for the British people.” Sunak, who describes himself as a “proud Hindu”, is Britain’s first prime minister of South Asian heritage and, at the age of 42, the youngest by more than 200 years. His victory on Diwali resonates among Indian diaspora groups across Britain. , who hailed it as a “historic moment” in British social history.
It is a historic moment for Rishi Sunak to become the first British Indian Prime Minister. This was not possible even a decade or two ago, said Sundar Katwala, director of the British Future think tank.
“But we should not underestimate this important social change. Sunak was born in Southampton in 1980, a post-war era with no Asian or black parliamentarians. Even when he graduated from university in 2001, none There were no black or Asian Conservative parliamentarians. Rishi Sunak, set to become prime minister during the coronation of King Charles III next spring, tells an important story about our society, where we have come from and where we are in the future. going,” he said.
The Archbishop of Canterbury urges Britons to pray for Sunak as he enters Number 10 Downing Street in troubled times. Justin Welby wrote on Twitter, “In a time of great difficulty and uncertainty for this country, please join me in praying for Rishi Sunak as he takes on leadership responsibility.”
“Let him, and leaders of all parties, work to bring about unity and provide stability to those who need it most,” he said. Sunak’s victory in the Tory leadership race comes at the end of a dramatic few days at Westminster as Truss resigned last Thursday in the wake of a disastrous tax-cut mini-budget and several policy U-turns.
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson found himself out of competition over the weekend and Commons leader Penny Mordant conceded defeat just moments before the shortlisting deadline on Monday, paving the way for a remarkable political comeback for the sunk, the truce. Lost the Tory membership vote. Just last month.
However, his popularity as a frontrunner among his party colleagues has been reawakened as more than half of Tory MPs have publicly come out in support of him. He now faces the enormous challenge of steering the UK economy through massive inflationary turbulence and uniting the various wings of a divided Conservative Party.