Why British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces likely electoral defeat
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will lead his Conservative Party into a U.K. general election. But who is the country's first British-Indian prime minister.
RICHMOND, England — Rishi Sunak has a habit of making history. He’s the United Kingdom’s first British Indian prime minister and its first Hindu leader, and at 42 he was the youngest to take the job in over 200 years. He’s also probably the richest person to govern from No. 10 Downing St.
Now 44, Sunak is about to mark new and less flattering records in the U.K. general election Thursday. After a campaign beset by scandals, PR failures and allegations of insider betting, he may very well lead his Conservative Party to its worst defeat ever.
How did it come to this? Hanging over the electorate is a feeling that there is one set of rules for the elites in London — and another for the rest of Britain after years of Conservative Party rule. Living standards are being squeezed. The gap between the very rich — which includes Sunak — and the rest has continued to widen. There is the widespread perception that public services not just are struggling but are on the verge of failing.
The backlash against the Tories — the nickname for the Conservatives — is so strong that Sunak may lose his own constituency, which no prime minister has done before. The Conservatives have held the seat since 1910.
In Richmond in late June, a picturesque Yorkshire market town at the heart of Sunak’s territory, early summer rays recently bounced off steep cobbled streets and stone-clad buildings as day-trippers and locals chatted in pub beer gardens.
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