Former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak is set to become Britain’s first prime minister of color after being chosen Monday to lead a governing Conservative Party desperate for a safe pair of hands to guide the country through economic and political turbulence.
The challenges facing the U.K.’s third prime minister this year are enormous: He must try to shore up an economy sliding toward recession and reeling after his predecessor’s brief, disastrous experiment in libertarian economics, while also attempting to unite a demoralized and divided party that trails far behind the opposition in opinion polls.
In his first public statement, Sunak said “the United Kingdom is a great country, but there is no doubt we face a profound economic challenge.”
“We now need stability and unity, and I will make it my utmost priority to bring our party and our country together,” said Sunak, who at 42 is Britain’s youngest prime minister in 200 years.
Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak is getting cheers from an unlikely place: India, its former colony.
As the news became clear Monday, social media and TV channels in India were awash with comments and reactions to the accomplishment by the 42-year-old who has spoken publicly about his Indian roots and Hindu faith.
For many Indians, who are celebrating Diwali, one of the most important Hindu festivals, it was the moment to say: He is one of our own.
“It is a moment of pride for India that the country which ruled us for many years has now a prime minister of Indian heritage,” said Manoj Garg, a New Delhi businessman.
Sunak will be the first person of color to take Britain’s top job, an accomplishment reflecting that of Kamala Harris, a woman of Indian heritage who became U.S. vice president last year.
Sunak’s grandparents hailed from Punjab state before the Indian subcontinent was divided into two countries — India and Pakistan — in 1947 after British colonial rule ended. They moved to East Africa in the late 1930s before finally settling in the U.K. in the 1960s. Sunak was born in 1980 in Southampton on England’s south coast. (Associated Press)
