UK (Commonwealth Union) – Rishi Sunak has won the race to becomes the United Kingdom’s second Prime Mnister of ethnic origin after Benjamin Disraeli and the first South Asian and Hindu PM. Since the resignation of Boris Johnson, both the markets and the British public did not have much of an appetite for an electoral contest. Several contenders were up for the post of Prime Minister and in the end, it was narrowed down to Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. Truss won the contest with 81,325 votes (57.3%) narrowly beating Sunak who received 60,399 votes (42.6%).
Roughly 44 days later Truss resigned following a series of resignations after a failed economic programme. The tax policies that Truss was set to implement were heavily criticized by Sunak who at one point stated that he would rather lose out on becoming PM than making promises that were impossible to implement bringing about disaster and following the Truss resignation many of Sunak’s supporters expressed a feeling of vindication.
What started off as a 3-horse race between Sunak, Boris Johnson and Penny Mordaunt was narrowed down to 2 with Boris Johnson withdrawing following meetings with both Sunak and Penny Mordaunt. Johnson stated that he had 102 MP nominations (minimum requirement is a 100 nomination) but decided to pull out in the interest of mending divisions within the party, to which both Sunak and Mordaunt expressed their appreciation.
In spite wide criticism of both Truss and Sunak’s appointment of PM, the procedure was very much within the rules of the UK, where the elected party has the mandate to select the PM. Markets have responded positively with the appointment of Sunak, taking into account his financial background.
Sunak has previously received credit for his policies such as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, where individuals who were unable to attend work due to the pandemic received 80% of the pay that was capped at £2,500 per month. He also received credit for his opposition the extreme lockdown considering its impact on the economy, however some are concerned on his possible policies on austerity which will need to be addressed considering the UKs economic crisis.
