{"id":80183,"date":"2022-08-01T13:50:25","date_gmt":"2022-08-01T13:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=80183"},"modified":"2022-08-01T13:50:25","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T13:50:25","slug":"rishi-sunak-who-took-oath-on-gita-bids-to-be-britains-1st-pm-of-colour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=80183","title":{"rendered":"Rishi Sunak, who took oath on Gita, bids to be Britain’s 1st PM of colour"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"News Desk:<\/strong> Before his spectacular falling-out with Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak was on a rapid rise that could still end with him installed as Britain's first prime minister of colour.
\nIt would be a historic landmark if the Hindu descendant of immigrants from India and East Africa were to take command of the world's fifth-largest economy.<\/p>\n

But after making the final run-off following a series of votes by Conservative MPs, Sunak must first persuade the party's members as ballot papers go out on Monday — and he is well behind Liz Truss.<\/p>\n

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Opinion polls show that she has so far outflanked him with policies geared to the Tory right, which also mistrusts Sunak's role in a cabinet revolt that unseated Johnson after months of scandal.<\/p>\n

Fabulously rich from his pre-politics career in finance, the former chancellor of the exchequer has also been mocked as being out of touch when Britons are contending with surging inflation.<\/p>\n

On the campaign trail this month, he wore expensive Prada loafers on a visit to a building site, and was accused of “mansplaining” to Truss during a bad-tempered TV debate when he savaged her tax-cutting plans.
\nInstead, Sunak argues, Britain needs a Thatcherite dose of “sound money” to quell inflation and get growth back on track.<\/p>\n

Video footage also emerged of a 21-year-old Sunak describing his mix of friends following his education at Winchester College, one of Britain's most exclusive private schools, and the University of Oxford.<\/p>\n

“I have friends who are aristocrats, I have friends who are upper class, I have friends who are, you know, working class,” he said, before adding: “Well, not working class.”<\/p>\n

Dishy Rishi<\/strong><\/p>\n

A details-oriented policy wonk, Sunak, 42, was an early backer of Brexit, and took over as chancellor in February 2020.<\/p>\n

It was a baptism of fire for the Tory rising star, as the Covid pandemic erupted.<\/p>\n

He was forced to craft an enormous economic support package at breakneck speed, which he now says needs to be paid off.<\/p>\n

In India, Sunak has been better known through his wife Akshata Murty. She is the daughter of Narayana Murthy, the co-founder of Infosys.<\/p>\n

The Sunaks met while studying in California and they have two young daughters — along with a photogenic dog.<\/p>\n

The ex-minister's Instagram-friendly profile earned him the media nickname of “Dishy Rishi”.<\/p>\n

Partygate fine<\/strong><\/p>\n

Until last year, Sunak held a US Green Card — which critics said suggested a lack of long-term loyalty to Britain.<\/p>\n

And he has faced difficult questions over Murty's failure until recently to pay UK taxes on her Infosys returns, which opinion polls suggest was viewed with deep disfavour by voters.<\/p>\n

Sunak has already been marked by the scandals of Johnson's tumultuous premiership.<\/p>\n

In November 2020, he marked Diwali by lighting oil lamps on the front step of the chancellor's official residence at 11 Downing Street — while urging others to stick to England's Covid lockdown.<\/p>\n

Johnson was less observant of the rules, drawing a police fine for one lockdown breach as part of an investigation into the “Partygate” affair.<\/p>\n

But Sunak also ended up with a police fine, after joining a birthday gathering for Johnson when he arrived early for a Downing Street meeting.<\/p>\n

Along with the controversy over his family fortune, the Partygate scandal sullied the reputation of the teetotal Sunak, who admits only to a fondness for Coca-Cola and sugary confectioneries.<\/p>\n

Waiter to wealth<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sunak represents the constituency of Richmond in Yorkshire, northern England — a safe Conservative seat he took over in 2015 from former party leader and foreign secretary William Hague, who described him as “exceptional”.<\/p>\n

Sunak swears his oath of allegiance as an MP on the Bhagavad Gita. Theresa May gave him his first job in government in January 2018, making him a junior minister for local government, parks and troubled families.<\/p>\n

Sunak's grandparents were from Punjab and emigrated to Britain from eastern Africa in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

They arrived with “very little”, Sunak told MPs in his maiden speech in 2015.<\/p>\n

His father was a family doctor in Southampton on the southern English coast, and his mother ran a local pharmacy.<\/p>\n

Sunak waited tables in a local Indian restaurant, before progressing to Oxford and then Stanford University in California.<\/p>\n

Sunak insists that both his own family's experience, and that of his wife's, are a “very Conservative” story of hard work and aspiration. He will soon learn if the party members agree.<\/p>\n

Source: NDTV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News Desk: Before his spectacular falling-out with Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak was on a rapid rise that could still end with him installed as Britain’s first prime minister of colour. It would be a historic landmark if the Hindu descendant of immigrants from India and East Africa were to take command of the world’s fifth-largest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":80184,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n