British politician Rishi Sunak has emerged as the United Kingdom Prime Minister after rival Penny Mordaunt failed to secure the necessary 100 nominations from her fellow members of Parliament (MPs).
Sunak won the support of an overwhelming majority of the Conservative Party MPs and became the first non-white PM, enabling him to claim the keys to No 10 (the official residence of the UK PM).
He also emerged as the PM following the resignation of former PM, Liz Truss last Thursday.
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Early Life and Education
Sunak was born on 12 May 1980 in Southampton to African-born Hindu parents of Punjabi-Indian descent, Yashvir and Usha Sunak. He is the eldest of three siblings. His father was born and raised in the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya (present-day Kenya), while his mother was born in Tanganyika (which later became part of Tanzania).
However, Sunak attended Stroud School, a preparatory school in Romsey, Hampshire, and Winchester College, a boys’ independent boarding school, where he was head boy. He was also a waiter at a curry house in Southampton during his summer holidays.
Five Things You Need to Know About Sunak
- Sunak was born on 12th May 1980 in Southampton, England to Indian parents – Yashvir and Usha Sunak who migrated to Britain from East Africa in the 1960s.
- He studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Lincoln College, Oxford (2001) and had a Master’s in Business Administration at Stanford University, USA (2006).
- In August 2009, Sunak married Akshata Murthy, the daughter of the Indian billionaire N.R Narayana Murthy, the founder of a technology company, Infosys.
- He wanted to be a Jedi knight when he was growing up : In 2016 he told children at a Northallerton primary school that the job he wanted most when he was growing up was to be a Jedi knight.
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- Sunak introduced a programme which provided £330 billion in emergency support for businesses as a furlough scheme for employees on March 17, 2020.
- He doesn’t want to be prime minister really anyway : In 2020 he laughed off suggestions that he was after the top job. “God, no. Definitely not, seeing what the prime minister has to deal with,” he said. He then went on to hail his relationship with Johnson, saying: “We have a close personal friendship which then spreads through the teams where there’s an enormous amount of mutual trust.” Liz Truss supporters will be hoping Rishi’s wishy comes true.
- Also, Rishi Sunak was the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister) from February 13 2020 – July 5 2022 under Boris Johnson’s government.
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