Who is Rishi Sunak?
Rishi Sunak has emerged victorious in the leadership ballot among Tory MPs. However, he faces a tough challenge in gaining the support of the Conservative Party’s rank and file.
Sunak, whose exit from the cabinet on July 5 marked the beginning of the end of Boris Johnson’s government, said he “is the only candidate” who can beat the Labour party in the next general elections and that the economic policies he introduced as finance minister “helped get through this country through an incredibly difficult period over the last couple of years.”
While Sunak emerged victorious in the leadership ballot among Tory MPs, he faces a tough challenge in gaining the support of the Conservative Party’s rank and file that will over the next month select the future PM, and so far seem to favour his rival, Liz Truss.
The 42-year-old Tory MP was born in the UK’s Southampton to Indian-origin parents. His father was a general practitioner for the National Health Service (NHS) and his mother ran a local pharmacy. His grandparents were born in Punjab and had migrated to East Africa, before moving to Britain in the 1960s where they reportedly worked administrative jobs.
He studied at the elite private school Winchester College, after which he went to Oxford University and Stanford University, where he received his MBA and won the prestigious Fullbright scholarship.
His impressive resume includes working as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and various hedge funds. In 2009 Sunak married Akshata Murty, the heir of Narayan Murthy, the billionaire owner of Infosys.
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