Rishi Sunak Biography

(/ri sunaek/) Rishi Sunak RISH-ee SOO-nak, a British politician who was born on May 12, 1980, has been the country’s prime minister and the head of the Conservative Party since 2022. He has served in two cabinet posts under Boris Johnson, most recently serving from 2020 to 2022 as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Sunak has served as Richmond’s Member of Parliament (MP) since 2015. The position of prime minister has never been held by a British Asian.

Sunak was born in Southampton to East African immigrants of Indian heritage. In the 1960s, they moved to Great Britain. He received his education at Winchester College, attended Lincoln College in Oxford to study philosophy, politics, and economics, and graduated as a Fulbright Scholar with an MBA from Stanford University in California. Sunak joined the Conservative Party and completed an internship at Conservative Central Office while he was a student at Oxford University. Following graduation, Sunak worked for Goldman Sachs before becoming a partner at The Children’s Investment Fund Management and Theleme Partners, two hedge fund companies.

At the general election in 2015, Sunak was chosen to represent Richmond in North Yorkshire in the House of Commons. In the 2016 referendum on EU membership, Sunak supported the winning Brexit campaign as a backbencher. In the 2018 cabinet shuffle, Sunak was appointed as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Government, a junior ministerial role in Theresa May’s second administration.

He cast three votes in favor of May’s Brexit divorce agreement, which was subsequently rejected three times by Parliament and resulted in May’s departure. Sunak supported Johnson’s successful campaign to succeed May as the leader and prime minister of the Conservative Party during the 2019 leadership contest. Johnson then appointed Sunak as the Chief Secretary to the Treasury in July of that year.

Johnson elevated Sunak to Chancellor of the Exchequer following the 2019 general election in the 2020 cabinet reshuffle that followed Sajid Javid’s departure. Sunak played a significant role in the government’s financial reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the economy during his tenure in the job, including the Coronavirus Job Retention and Eat Out to Help Out programs. He also participated in the government’s reaction to the crises in the UK’s energy supply, the world’s energy supply, and the expense of living. In the midst of a political crisis that led to Johnson’s resignation in July 2022, Sunak announced his resignation as chancellor.

To succeed Johnson, Sunak ran in the July–September Conservative Party leadership contest. Despite having gained the most votes in each round of MP voting, he was defeated by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in the members’ vote. Sunak ran in the October 2022 Conservative Party leadership election to succeed Truss, who resigned amid another government crisis, after spending the entirety of Truss’s tenure on the opposition benches. He was chosen as the Conservative Party’s leader and made prime minister without any opposition. Sunak began serving as chancellor in the midst of the energy and cost of living crises, as well as a number of labor conflicts and strikes. In reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he has approved shipments of foreign aid and weapons to that nation.

Rishi Sunak Early life and education

Sunak was born on May 12, 1980, at Southampton General Hospital in Southampton, Hampshire, to Yashvir and Usha Sunak, Hindu immigrants from East Africa with Indian Punjabi ancestry. Sunak has admitted that when he was younger, he dreamed of appearing in a Star Wars film. He attended Romsey’s preparatory Stroud School before enrolling as a dayboy and ultimately rising to the position of head boy at Winchester College. During his summer vacation, he worked as a waiter in a curry restaurant in Southampton. At Lincoln College in Oxford, he studied philosophy, politics, and economics. In 2001, he received a first-class degree.

He joined the Conservative Party and completed an internship at the Conservative Party’s headquarters while he was still in college. As a Fulbright Scholar, Sunak obtained a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University in 2006. He met his future wife Akshata Murty, the daughter of Indian tycoon N. R. Narayana Murthy of Infosys, while they were both students at Stanford.

Sunak’s maternal grandpa was from Ludhiana, which is currently in India, while his paternal grandfather was from Gujranwala, which is currently in Pakistan. At the time, both places were part of British India’s Punjab region. In the 1960s, his grandparents immigrated from East Africa to the UK. His father, Yashvir Sunak, is a general practitioner for the National Health Service and was born and reared in the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya (modern-day Kenya). Usha Sunak, his mother, was born in Tanganyika (later incorporated into Tanzania), worked as a pharmacist, and she had ownership of the Sunak Pharmacy in Southampton from 1995 until 2014. She also holds a degree from Aston University.

Of his three siblings, Sunak is the oldest. His sister Raakhi Williams (born 1985) serves as the worldwide fund for education in emergencies’ chief of strategy and planning in New York, while his brother Sanjay Williams (born 1982) is a psychologist.

Rishi Sunak Business career

Between 2001 to 2004, Sunak worked as an analyst for the financial institution Goldman Sachs. The Children’s Investment Fund Management, where he later worked, hired him as a partner in September 2006. He departed in November 2009 to work with old coworkers at Theleme Partners, a new hedge fund company that opened in October 2010 with $700 million under management (which will be $939 million in 2022). Patrick Degorce served as his supervisor at both hedge funds. Between 2013 and 2015, Sunak served as a director of Catamaran Ventures, an investment company controlled by his father-in-law, Infosys founder N. R. Narayana Murthy.

Rishi Sunak Early political career

Member of Parliament

In 2010, Sunak switched to the Conservative Party. In October 2014, he was chosen to run as the Conservative candidate in Richmond (Yorks), defeating Wendy Morton. William Hague, a former party leader who held different government posts under David Cameron, previously held the seat. The position has been held by the party for more than a century and is one of the safest Conservative seats in the United Kingdom.

Sunak co-authored a report on BME communities in the UK while serving as the head of the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Research Unit at the center-right think tank Policy Exchange in the same year. At the general election in 2015, he won the district’s MP seat with a majority of 19,550 (36.2%). He served on the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs Select Committee from 2015 to 2017.

In the UK’s successful effort to leave the EU in the June 2016 EU membership referendum, Sunak was a supporter. He authored a study that year supporting the construction of free ports post Brexit for the Centre for Policy Studies, a Thatcherite think tank, and another report the following year promoting the development of a retail bond market for small and medium-sized businesses. Following Cameron’s resignation, Sunak supported Michael Gove in the 2016 contest for the leadership of the Conservative Party. After Gove was defeated in the second round of voting, Sunak supported Theresa May, who ultimately won the contest.

At the general election in 2017, Sunak won re-election with a larger margin of 23,108 (40.5%). Sunak discussed the significance and brittleness of Britain’s underwater infrastructure in 2017. At the general election in 2019, Sunak won re-election with a larger margin of 27,210 (47.2%).

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Government (2018–2019)

In the 2018 cabinet reshuffle, Sunak was promoted to a junior ministerial position in May’s second administration as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Government. Sunak abstained from voting in favor of a second referendum on any divorce agreement and supported May’s Brexit withdrawal agreement on each of the three occasions. Three times, Parliament rejected May’s departure agreement, which prompted May to announce her resignation in May 2019.

Sunak co-authored an article with fellow MPs Robert Jenrick and Oliver Dowden to endorse Boris Johnson during the June campaign for the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury (2019–2020)

Sunak was appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury, working for Chancellor Sajid Javid, after Johnson was chosen as the Conservative Party’s leader and prime minister. The following day, he was admitted to the Privy Council. Sunak participated in the seven-way election debates on the BBC and ITV for the Conservatives during the 2019 general election.

Chancellor of the Exchequer (2020–2022)

As part of the 2020 cabinet change, Sunak was appointed chancellor on February 13 after Javid quit that day after speaking with Johnson.

COVID-19 pandemic

On March 17, 2020, Sunak rose to prominence in the government’s response as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic and its effects on the economy. Along with a furlough program for workers, he unveiled a program offering £330 billion in emergency support for businesses. This staff retention program was the first of its kind to be developed by a British government. The program, which was launched on March 20, 2020, offers grants to employers to cover up to £2,500 per person per month in employment costs and 80% of worker wages. The anticipated operating cost was £14 billion per month.

The initial duration of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme was three months, with a backdate of March 1. The nationwide lockdown was prolonged for an additional three weeks, and Sunak then extended the program to the end of June 2020. Sunak extended the plan at the end of May through the end of October 2020. The decision to extend the job retention program was made in order to prevent or postpone mass layoffs, corporate failures, and potentially historic levels of unemployment.

A plan for an additional £30 billion in spending was unveiled by Sunak in July 2020. It included a stamp duty holiday, a reduction in value-added tax (VAT) for the hospitality industry, a bonus for employers who can keep their employees, and the Eat Out to Help Out program, which supports and creates jobs in the hospitality sector. At participating cafes, bars, and restaurants, the government provided a 50% subsidy on food and soft drinks, up to £10 per person. The promotion was valid from Monday, August 3, through Wednesday, August 31, every week.

The program subsidized meals worth £849 million in total. While some disagreed, others thought the program was successful in growing the hospitality sector. Johnson accepted the scheme’s role in the spike of COVID-19 infections from a 2020 research, but the Treasury disagreed.

On September 24, 2020, Sunak delivered the Winter Economy Plan. The announcement of the measures was made in order to aid further encourage economic recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects. The strategy aimed to maintain sustainable jobs and businesses while advancing the recovery of the economy. The program was extended until 2 December 2020 following a second lockdown in England on October 31, 2020, and then again on November 5 until March 31, 2021. The program was further extended on December 17th, this time through April 30th, 2021. The program was once again extended until September 30, 2021, according to Sunak, who made the announcement in the 2021 United Kingdom budget, which was made public on March 3, 2021.

Sunak’s third and last budget statement, which was released in October 2021, contained significant investment commitments for science and education. The work allowances were raised by £500 annually as part of the budget, and the post-tax deduction taper rate was decreased from 63% to 55%. These changes enhanced in-work support provided under the Universal Credit system. Investments totaling £560 million were announced for the Levelling Up White Paper. A large number of the statements that would be made in the budget were shown to the public before budget day, angering the House of Commons. Sunak replied to the criticism by stating that the budget “begins the work of preparing for a new economy”.

Sunak received a fixed penalty notice from the police in April 2022 after the Partygate controversy after it was determined that he had violated COVID-19 restrictions by attending Johnson’s birthday party on June 19, 2020. Along with Johnson and his wife Carrie Symonds, the police also served 125 fixed penalty notices to 82 other people, who all expressed regret and paid the fines. Sunak was “extremely and sincerely sorry” for the harm his attendance at the party had caused and said he appreciated the police’s choice to penalize him.

Cost of living crisis and energy crisis

The UK government, including Sunak, stepped up its efforts to address the crisis in May 2022 with a £5 billion windfall tax on energy companies to help finance a £15 billion support package for the general public as the rising cost of living became an increasingly serious and concerning issue for the nation.

. Every household would receive a £400 energy bill savings as part of the deal, on top of the government’s already-ordered £150 council tax refund. A supplementary £650 payment was announced for around 8 million of the lowest income households in the UK. Additionally, in addition to the £550 that every household receives and the £650 that they would receive if they had a low income, retirees or people with disabilities would qualify for additional payments.

On March 23, 2022, Sunak issued his spring statement. While keeping with a planned national insurance rise in April, he promised to align the primary threshold with the basic personal income allowance as of July. He also reduced national insurance payments for small businesses and removed VAT on energy-saving equipment (such as solar panels and insulation). Additionally, he committed to lowering income taxes in 2024. Additionally, Sunak contributed some money to help those in need manage the rising cost of living.

Other actions

In June 2021, Sunak will host a G7 conference in London. A tax reform deal that attempted to create a worldwide minimum tax on multinational corporations and online technology companies was inked. The OECD made an agreement to participate in the tax reform plan in October 2021. Sunak attended COP26 in Glasgow later that month. In his statement on November 3, he expressed confidence in the face of enormous obstacles and said that by bringing together finance ministers, companies, and investors, COP26 may start achieving the goals set forth in the Paris Agreement.

Sunak and his family’s wealth

A substantial portion of Sunak’s wife and family’s financial interests, including a combined £1.7 billion stake in the Indian corporation Infosys, were reportedly not disclosed on the register of ministers’ interests in November 2020, according to The Guardian. Sunak should disclose his financial interests and those of his immediate family, according to Alistair Graham, a former chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, because of the chancellor’s authority over the government’s fiscal and commercial policies. He seemed to have approached this need in the most straightforward manner conceivable. Rishi Sunak may want to thoroughly review the “Seven Principles of Public Life” to ensure that he is adhering to the two principles of “Honesty and Leadership.”

Ministers are obligated to disclose any interests that are “relevant” to their duties and “which might be thought to give rise to a conflict” with their obligations to the public. Following an investigation, the independent adviser on ministers’ interests came to the conclusion that Sunak had not violated any laws.

Newspapers stated that Murty held non-domiciled status at the beginning of 2022, which exempted her from paying tax on money she received while residing in the UK. She was able to save an estimated £20 million in UK taxes by obtaining the status, which cost about £30,000 to obtain. Murty announced on April 8 that she would pay UK taxes on her worldwide income in response to media uproar, adding that she did not want the matter to “be a distraction for my husband.” Whoever revealed the specifics of her tax situation was the subject of a Whitehall investigation.

According to reports at the time, Sunak had kept his permanent resident (green card) status in the US through 2021, including for the 18 months following his appointment as chancellor, which included submitting yearly tax returns to the US. Sunak was deemed to have not violated any ministerial regulations after an investigation of his wife’s tax situation and his residency status was conducted.

Run-up to becoming Prime Minister

Resignation as Chancellor

The sexual harassment claims against Chris Pincher caused a controversy on July 5, 2022, which forced Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid to almost immediately quit. It was later discovered that Johnson had promoted Pincher despite being aware of the complaints. In the midst of the government crisis, Sunak was the second of 61 Conservative MPs to resign. Sunak stated in his letter of resignation:

The public has a right to demand proper, professional, and serious government operations. Although I am aware that this may be my final ministerial position, I am leaving because I think these norms are important and are worth fighting for. My understanding has grown that our methods are essentially too dissimilar. Although I am sorry to leave the government, I have regretfully come to the conclusion that things cannot go on as they are.

Nadhim Zahawi took over as chancellor after him. Numerous subordinate ministers and the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) quit when Sunak and Javid did, with many of them blaming Johnson for lacking honesty and integrity. 36 MPs quit their government positions in the ensuing 24 hours. Since the British Empire Economic Conference in 1932, this was both the most ministerial resignations in a 24-hour period and the most ministerial resignations ever recorded. Johnson declared on July 7 that he would step down as Conservative leader and prime minister after a total of 62 resignations, although he insisted that he would continue in that role until a new leader was in place.

Rishi Sunak Conservative leadership bids

Sunak declared his candidacy for the position of Conservative Party leader to succeed Johnson on July 8, 2022. Sunak declared in a social media video that he would “restore trust, rebuild the economy, and reunite the country” as he began his campaign. He declared that “patriotism, fairness, and hard work” were his ideals and promised to “crack down on gender neutral language”. During the campaign, Sunak promised to limit the number of refugees admitted and to tighten the definition of asylum. He also promised to cap refugee numbers and to delay tax cuts until inflation was under control. He also promised to eliminate the 5% VAT rate on household energy for a year.

On July 20, Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss were announced as the two finalists who will be presented to the membership for the decisive leadership vote. In each round of the MP votes, he had gotten the most votes; in the final round, Sunak received 137 votes to Truss’s 113. Truss won 57.4% of the vote in the membership election, becoming the new leader. He sat on the sidelines for the entirety of Truss’s premiership.

On October 20, 2022, in the midst of a government crisis, Truss announced her resignation, setting off a leadership election. According to a report from the 22nd of October, Sunak had the necessary 100 members of the House of Commons to be eligible to contest in the election on the 24th. On the afternoon of October 22, 100 MPs had publicly expressed their support. On October 23, Sunak announced his intention to run for office. On October 24, Johnson declared himself out of the running and Penny Mordaunt withdrew her name from consideration.

Prime Minister (2022–present)

On October 25, 2022, Sunak, the head of the Conservative Party, took office as prime minister in the wake of Truss’ resignation. Sunak had already accepted King Charles III’s request to form a cabinet. He is the country’s first non-white, British Asian, and Hindu prime minister. Sunak stated in his first speech as prime minister that “we will create a future worthy of the sacrifices so many have made and fill tomorrow, and every day thereafter, with hope.” He also pledged “integrity, professionalism, and accountability.”

Sunak praised his predecessor, saying that while Truss “was not wrong” in wanting to boost growth, he acknowledged that “some mistakes were made” and that part of the reason he was chosen to be prime minister was to correct them. “Place economic stability and confidence at the center of this government’s agenda,” he pledged.

On October 25, 2022, Sunak started to assemble his cabinet. After Kwasi Kwarteng was fired on October 14 during the Truss cabinet, Jeremy Hunt was appointed chancellor and kept the position. Additionally, Dominic Raab, who served in these capacities under Boris Johnson as prime minister, was reappointed as deputy prime minister and justice secretary. James Cleverly continued to serve as Foreign Secretary, and Suella Braverman, who had previously left her position as Secretary of State for the Home Department during the Truss administration, was reinstated in that position.

The position of Secretary of State for Defense, which Ben Wallace had previously held during the Johnson and Truss governments, was retained. Grant Shapps was downgraded from Home Secretary to Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy while Michael Gove took back the position of Levelling Up Secretary from which Johnson had fired him. Penny Mordaunt kept her positions as Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons, which she had held during the Truss administration.

Other significant appointments included Thérèse Coffey as environment secretary, Mel Stride as work and pensions secretary, Mark Harper as transport secretary, Oliver Dowden as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and Simon Hart as Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury and Chief Whip of the House of Commons. Nadhim Zahawi served as party chairman.

Gavin Williamson and Dominic Raab were two cabinet picks made by Sunak that drew criticism. Both had been charged with bullying, which they both vigorously disputed. Later, Williamson resigned, and eight formal complaints about the accusations made against Dominic Raab were being looked into. Sunak received criticism as well for reassigning Braverman to the cabinet after she had resigned for violating the Ministerial Code. Assembling a “unified party” was the goal, according to Sunak, when he appointed people to the cabinet. Sunak fired Zahawi on January 29, 2023, citing ethics consultant Laurie Magnus’ discovery of a “serious breach” of the ministerial code. Sunak’s decision to reinstate Zahawi was first questioned, as were the timing of his dismissal and Sunak’s judgment in doing so.

Rishi Sunak Environment

On October 26, Sunak reversed his predecessor’s position and reintroduced the fracking prohibition as promised in the Conservative Party’s 2019 campaign.

Sunak initially declared in October that he would abstain from the Egypt-hosted United Nations Climate Change Conference in order to focus on pressing domestic issues. As a result of pressure from lawmakers, environmental activists, and others, Sunak declared he would go.

On November 4, Sunak went to the king’s reception at Buckingham Palace. About 200 politicians and activists gathered for the gathering, and Sunak assured them that the UK will continue to pursue its environmental goals following its COP26 chair. Sunak warned in his speech that people would continue to suffer as a result of climate change and that by doing nothing, they ran the risk of leaving their descendants a hopeless legacy. Sunak also praised the king for his protracted efforts to protect the environment.

Sunak established The Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP) on November 7 at the COP27 summit, expanding on the Glasgow Climate Pact initiative that was first started at COP 26. With the help of 26 nations and the European Union, the alliance hopes to stop and reverse deforestation by 2030. Together with private finance, these nations contribute more than 33% of the world’s forests and 60% of the global GDP, bringing the partnership’s total assets to $23.8 billion.

Sunak claimed that despite being one of the world’s natural beauties, forests have been underappreciated and underrated in his remarks to the Forest and Climate Leaders’ Summit. Then he challenged all there to build on what had already been accomplished in order to leave a lasting legacy for future generations. Beginning in 2023, the FCLP will publish an annual Global Progress Report that includes independent evaluations and hold annual meetings.

Rishi Sunak Foreign policy