How did Sunak happen in just 7 years from entering politics to being elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom?

There is little doubt that this time former British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has won the battle for British prime minister.

On the 24th local time, former British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak became the leader of the British Conservative Party and is about to become the British Prime Minister. He is the third Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the past 4 months and the first Asian and Indian Prime Minister in British history.

Sunak, born in 1980, is now 42 years old. Sunak, who was first elected to parliament and entered politics in 2015, was promoted to Chancellor of the Exchequer by former Prime Minister Johnson in 2020 and will be elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 2022, in just seven years. How did Sunak, 42, happen when former British Prime Ministers Tony Blair and David Cameron became prime ministers?

The doctor's family came out of a high-caliber student

Sunak was born in Southampton, England, and his grandparents immigrated to the UK from East Africa in the 60s, starting from scratch, and by the generation of Sunak's parents, his father Sunak Sr. had become a respected NHS general practitioner and his mother was a pharmacist who ran a pharmacy at home.

As the eldest son, Sunak Jr. excelled in his studies, studying at Winchester College, a famous private school in the United Kingdom, and then successfully entered Lincoln College at Oxford University to study philosophy, politics and economics (PPE), which is the cradle of British politics.

Subsequently, Sunak, who won a scholarship, went to the United States to study, and not only obtained an MBA degree at Stanford University, but also gained love.

While in the United States, Sunak met his wife, Aksata Murthy, an Indian billionaire and founder of Infosys. Daughter of R. Narayana Murthy. Infosys was the first company in India's history to go public in the United States.

"Rocketing promotion" after entering politics

After graduating, Sunak worked at Goldman Sachs and subsequently as a partner at hedge fund firm Children's Investment Fund Management (CIMF) and Theleme Partners.

According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2022, Sunak and his wife are the 222nd richest people in the UK, with a combined fortune of £730 million.

In 2015, Sunak was elected to the House of Commons in general elections, and since then he has risen rapidly in politics like a "rocket", with a decisive turnaround in 2020.

In 2020, then-British Prime Minister Boris replaced then British Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid in a cabinet change, and then appointed Javid's subordinate, the then 39-year-old Sunak, as the new Chancellor of the Exchequer. In 2019, Sunak was only a junior housing minister in the British government, and this "imminent appointment" made him the second youngest chancellor in British history.

In 2020, Sunak spent hundreds of billions of pounds on a series of Covid relief measures, such as allocating funds for businesses to preserve jobs and issuing subsidies to encourage eating out, which built a reputation for pragmatic fiscal plans.

However, as inflation in the UK has risen, Sunak's cautious approach to fiscal discipline has led him to offer only limited support to help vulnerable households, which has reduced his popularity. At the same time, Sunak's wealthy status has drawn criticism, and his behavior of wearing designer clothes and using hundreds of dollars worth of smart coffee cups has made people in the cost of living crisis feel disconnected.

On July 5, 2022, Sunak abruptly announced his resignation as Chancellor of the Exchequer, in which he hinted that he and Johnson had differences over economic policy. Sunak's departure became the first domino to fall, and Johnson was forced to step down after more than 60 government officials resigned.

Three days later, Sunak ran for the Conservative leadership election. In the internal voting of Conservative MPs, Sunak retained the first advantage from the first round, but lost to Prime Minister Truss, who had just resigned, by 21,000 votes in the final vote of the Conservative Party people.

For the reasons for Sunak's defeat this summer, Wang Zhanpeng, deputy dean of the School of English at Beijing Foreign Chinese University and director of the British Research Center, told First Financial Reporter that for British Conservative voters, it is more difficult for them to accept Sunak's election as prime minister than to prefer Truss.

"The Conservatives have shot themselves in the foot over the last few months, but I think we need to give the new prime minister some time to at least calm things down before the next election." At least for now, if elections are held, it is clear that Labour will win by a landslide. Arther, a 67-year-old retired teacher in London, said in an interview with First Financial Reporter.

The fastest to take over tomorrow

Next, Sunak will meet King Charles, and he will announce a new list of cabinet members as soon as possible. According to British media reports, King Charles will travel from Sandringham to London this afternoon local time, which means that he will meet Truss and Sunak at Buckingham Palace as soon as tonight.

Sunak may officially take over Truss's position as early as Tuesday (25th), when Truss's term will reach exactly 50 days.

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron congratulated Sunak. He said 10 years ago that he thought the Conservatives would be the first party in Britain to have an Indian-born prime minister.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly called Sunak's election a "very positive move". He called Sunak the most experienced candidate to lead Britain, adding that he was a "smart and talented man".

Sunak, who has just taken office, faces a British economy on the verge of recession, including a crisis in public finances, high inflation, tight public services, industrial turmoil, soaring energy bills and even possible power outages in the new year. Sunak, a fiscal conservative, pledged in Sunday's statement to "fix the economy." "At every level of the government I lead, there will be integrity, professionalism and accountability," he said. ”

With Sunak elected prime minister, Britain's FTSE 100 hit an intraday high, rising nearly 0.7% to 7,015. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell 0.24 percentage points to 3.81 percent early Monday, reflecting a sharp rise in prices. As of press time, the pound fell 0.18% against the dollar to 1.1283. (Reporter Chen Xiyu also contributed to this article)