London
CNN
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Former finance minister Rishi Sunak will become Britain’s next prime minister after seeing off his only remaining rival in a fast-paced race to become Conservative leader on Monday.
Another front-runner, Penny Mordaunt, conceded after failing to meet the criteria for a nomination from Congress required to advance to the next stage of the campaign. He promised to fully support snacks.
Snack is of color and becomes the first Hindu to lead the UK. At 42, he is also the youngest incumbent in its more than 200-year history.
After the announcement, Sunak said he was “humbled and honored” to be elected leader. “It is the greatest privilege of my life to serve the party I love and to be able to give back to the country to which I owe so much,” he said in a brief televised statement.
Snak is set to replace Liz Truss, who will become the shortest prime minister in British history. Sunak will become prime minister on Tuesday after being officially appointed by King Charles III, making him the first prime minister appointed by the new king after the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September.
CNN has learned that the King is traveling from his Sandringham estate to London on Monday afternoon, as has always been his plan. He will have an audience with Truss before he meets with Sunak on Tuesday morning.
Sanjay Chandarana, who heads a Hindu temple co-founded by Sunak’s grandparents in 1971, said Sunak’s rise was a historic moment for Britain’s South Asian community.
“This is a Barack Obama moment for us. British South Asian Prime Minister from India. Everyone here is very excited to hear the news,” said the president of the Vedic Association Hindu Temple in Southampton. Chandarana, who is in the United States, told CNN.
Sunak’s grandparents were born in India and his parents immigrated to the UK from East Africa in the 1960s. Sunak has spoken publicly about his own British Indian ancestry, saying in a 2015 interview with his Business Standard that he checks British Indians on the census.
“I am fully British. This is my home and country, but my religious and cultural heritage is Indian and my wife is Indian. I am open about being a Hindu.” ‘, Sunak told Business Standard.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday called the incoming prime minister a bridge between the two countries and offered “heartfelt congratulations” to Prime Minister Sunak.
“I hope Diwali will be a ‘living bridge’ for British Indians, transforming a historic bond into a modern partnership,” Modi said on Twitter.
Truss also congratulated Snak following the announcement, saying on Twitter that he has “full support” of her.
Sunak formally announced his candidacy on Sunday after securing the support of 100 Conservative MPs. By Monday, he had secured the support of more than half of his party’s 357 MPs.
His campaign got a big boost when his former boss and rival former Prime Minister Boris Johnson withdrew from the race on Sunday night.
Monday marks the culmination of Sunak’s surprisingly rapid rise to power. He was first elected as a member of parliament in his 2015 and took office as a deputy minister in 2017. He was appointed Secretary of the Treasury in 2019 and was elevated to Prime Minister in 2020, and it was Johnson who gave Sunak his first major government role.
But as the third British prime minister in seven weeks, Sunak faces a major challenge.
His own party is split and increasingly unpopular after four months of political turmoil and financial market turmoil. At the same time, the UK is facing a major economic crisis and many economists believe the UK is already in recession.
He has also come under heavy attack from opposition politicians.
Like Truss, the Conservative Party is still the largest party in the House of Commons, so he didn’t have to win a general election to become Prime Minister. So the leader of the Conservative Party automatically becomes Prime Minister.
Opposition Labor Party deputy leader Angela Rayner called for early elections, saying Mr Sunak “has no mandate and has no idea what the workers need”.
“We need a general election so the public can have a say in Britain’s future and it’s a chance for Labor to make a fresh start,” she said.
It is not uncommon for prime ministers to take office without being elected. His four of the last five British prime ministers were the first to do so without a general election. But the fact that Sunak is the third British prime minister since his last poll in 2019 and his second to take power without a referendum adds to the pressure.
Sunak has no obligation to solicit votes. According to law, the next general election must be held by January 2025 at the latest.
Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon also criticized the way Snak came to power and renewed his call for Scottish independence.
“For Scotland, of course, he would be another Prime Minister we didn’t elect and would most certainly not vote for if given the chance. Scotland needs independence to take it into their own hands,” said Sturgeon.
“The UK is a great country, but there is no doubt it faces serious economic challenges,” Sunak said in a statement Monday afternoon.
“We need stability and unity now, and we will make uniting the party and the country a top priority. , because it is the only way to build a more prosperous future.”
As a former prime minister, Sunak has experience battling economic crises. He led the UK through his Covid-19 pandemic and introduced a huge monetary stimulus.
In recent days, he has not provided details of his planned policies, but when he ran against Truss in the Conservative leadership election before the summer, he positioned himself as the ‘sound finances’ candidate. I got
He was considered the more moderate of the two candidates. He agreed with Truss on the need to cut taxes, but said the cuts would only be possible after inflation was brought under control, which could take years.
He criticized Truss’ economic plans that ultimately caused panic in the financial markets and led to her death. Prices of UK government bonds rose at the fastest pace in history, and borrowing costs soared.
Investors seemed to welcome Sunak’s rise to power. The pound rose against the US dollar on Monday as his FTSE 250 index of British companies rose.
