Rishi Sunak’s bid to be Britain’s next PM gains momentum

British Conservative MP Rishi Sunak had received more support from Conservative lawmakers than his rivals. PHOTO: REUTERS

LONDON - Rishi Sunak gained momentum in his bid to become British prime minister, securing the public backing of senior Conservative Party lawmakers ahead of an initial leadership vote on Monday.

“I want to fix our economy, unite our party and deliver for our country,” Mr Sunak said in a tweet on Sunday.

His announcement was followed by another high-profile endorsement from Suella Braverman, whose resignation as home secretary last week helped to trigger the contest to replace Liz Truss as head of the Tory party and prime minister.

“We, as a party, need to change,” Braverman wrote in the Telegaph. “We need to provide leadership, stability and confidence to the British people.”

Grant Shapps, Ms Braverman’s successor as home secretary, was also among prominent Tories to come out in support of Mr Sunak on Sunday, following Cabinet minister Kemi Badenoch on Saturday.

Mr Sunak was defeated by Ms Truss in the race to replace Mr Boris Johnson in September after losing an election held by members of the Conservative party across the country. Mr Sunak quit Mr Johnson’s government in July, helping trigger a rebellion that bought him down.

Even before declaring on Sunday, Mr Sunak had received more support from Conservative lawmakers than his rivals - former defence minister Penny Mordaunt and Mr Johnson, who is attempting a comeback.

“There will be integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level of the government I lead and I will work day in and day out to get the job done,” he said in a statement.

“I am asking you for the opportunity to help fix our problems.”

Mr Sunak failed in the summer leadership contest to convince the grassroots he was a better option than Ms Truss. But having correctly predicted her economic agenda would spark economic turmoil, he may hope for more success second time around.

However, Mr Johnson remains a favourite of the party faithful and some members see his former finance minister as a back-stabber, making any such ballot highly fraught for Mr Sunak.

Fabulously rich from his pre-politics career in finance, he has been mocked as out of touch with Britons struggling with decades-high inflation.

On the summer campaign trail, he wore expensive Prada loafers on a visit to a building site and faced accusations of “mansplaining” to Ms Truss.

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.

“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.”

Dishy Rishi

A details-oriented policy wonk with a background in economics, Mr Sunak, 42, is set to market himself as a stable choice at a time of crisis.

An early backer of Brexit, he took over as chancellor of the exchequer in February 2020 – a baptism of fire for the Tory rising star as the Covid-19 pandemic erupted.

He was forced to craft an enormous economic support package at breakneck speed, which he now insists must be paid off with sound fiscal plans.

In India, Mr Sunak has been better known through his wife, Ms Akshata Murty. She is the daughter of Indian tycoon Narayana Murthy, the billionaire co-founder of information technology group Infosys.

Mr Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty attends a hustings event, part of the previous Conservative party leadership campaign, in London on August 31, 2022. PHOTO: REUTERS

The Sunaks met while studying in California and they have two young daughters, along with a photogenic dog.

The ex-minister’s Instagram-friendly profile earned him the media nickname of “Dishy Rishi”.

Until last year, he held a US Green Card – which critics said suggested a lack of long-term loyalty to Britain.

And he has been dogged by difficult questions over Ms Murty’s failure until recently to pay British taxes on her Infosys returns, which opinion polls suggest was viewed with deep disfavour by voters.

Mr Sunak has also been damaged by the scandals of Mr Johnson’s tumultuous premiership.

He ended up with a police fine for breaching Covid-19 rules, after joining a birthday gathering for the then-prime minister when he arrived early for a Downing Street meeting.

Mr Johnson was also fined following an investigation into the “Partygate” affair.

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

Waiter to wealth

Mr Sunak’s grandparents were from Punjab in northern India and emigrated to Britain from eastern Africa in the 1960s.

They arrived with “very little”, Mr Sunak told MPs in his maiden speech in 2015.

His father was a family doctor in Southampton on the southern English coast, and his mother ran a local pharmacy – a back story he never tired of telling on the leadership campaign trail.

Mr Sunak waited tables in a local Indian restaurant, before progressing to Oxford and then Stanford University in California.

He insists that both his own family’s experience, and that of his mega-rich wife’s, are a “very Conservative” story of hard work and aspiration.

He will soon learn if the party members can be won over at the second time of asking. AFP, BLOOMBERG, REUTERS

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