Rishi Sunak is the man to lead the United Kingdom, succeeding Liz Truss as leader of the Conservative Party.
A former chancellor (February 2020 to July 2022) he has enjoyed a rapid rise from election in 2015 as MP for Richmond (Yorks) to the top job.
Rishi Sunak’s victory is seen by some as a victory for diversity and representation in British politics, which is overwhelmingly dominated by older white men.
He will be the UK’s “first person” of colour, the first of Asian heritage and the first Hindu to lead the country. He was born in Southampton, an English port city, to Indian parents who had emigrated in the 1960s.
He will also be the youngest by more than 200 years at the age of 42.
But what do we know about him?
Sunak was born in Southampton in 1980 to parents of Indian origin who had emigrated from East Africa. His father was a general practitioner and his mother ran her own pharmacy. He is the first British Prime Minister from Asia.
Sunak was educated at the private school Winchester College, Oxford University and Stanford University in California and it was in the USA that he met his wife Akshata Murty, the daughter of an Indian billionaire and IT mogul. She and Sunak, 42, have two daughters.
He has never publicly commented on how much he is worth, but his career in finance before entering politics is reported to have made him a millionaire while still in his twenties. Sunak and his family’s finances came under intense scrutiny this year, with his wife’s tax affairs thrust into the spotlight.
Murty then said she would start paying UK tax on her overseas earnings, easing political pressure on her husband. He doesn’t drink alcohol, but he likes Coca-Cola. Sunak backed leaving the EU, claiming the UK would be “freer, fairer and more prosperous” outside the bloc.
