Rishi Sunak

**Rishi Sunak**  (born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who served as the 57th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2022 until 2024. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Boris Johnson government from 2020 to 2022. He is a member of the Conservative Party and has been a Member of Parliament.

In July 2022, Sunak resigned from his position as Chancellor of the Exchequer in protest against the Boris Johnson government. This caused a government crisis. Sunak later announced his candidacy for Leader of the Conservative Party in the 2022 leadership election. He lost the election to Liz Truss in September. However, a month later, Truss resigned, and Sunak ran again in the second 2022 leadership election. Nobody ran against him, and he became the new Conservative Party leader on 24 October 2022. Sunak is the first non-white, first British Indian, first Punjabi, and first Hindu person to become prime minister of the United Kingdom.

## Early life

Sunak was born at Southampton General Hospital in Southampton to Indian parents. Sunak went to school at Winchester College. He later studied at Lincoln College, Oxford, and went to Stanford University as a Fulbright Scholar. After graduating, he worked for Goldman Sachs.

## Political career

Sunak was elected for Richmond (Yorks) at the 2015 general election. He was in Theresa May's second government as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Government. He voted for May's Brexit withdrawal agreement three times. After May resigned, Sunak supported Boris Johnson's campaign to become Conservative leader.

After Johnson was elected, he appointed Sunak as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. When Sajid Javid resigned as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sunak replaced him in February 2020.

### Chancellor of Exchequer

As Chancellor, Sunak handled the government's economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom and the decision to lockdown. In April 2022, he broke COVID-19 regulations during lockdowns. He was the first Chancellor in British history to be punished for breaking the law while in office. He resigned as Chancellor on 5 July 2022 because he was against Johnson's leadership.

### 2022 Conservative leadership elections

On 8 July 2022, Sunak announced his candidacy to replace Johnson in the upcoming Conservative party leadership election. On 20 July, after winning the first five rounds of the election, he reached the final round against Liz Truss.

On 5 September 2022, it was announced that Truss had won the election with 81,326 votes while Sunak got 60,399 votes.

A month later, Truss resigned as prime minister in October. Sunak was the front-runner to replace her in the second leadership election of 2022. He announced his candidacy on 23 October 2022. On 24 October, he became the only leadership candidate after Boris Johnson said he would not run again and Penny Mordaunt withdrew from the race. He was announced as the new Conservative Party leader.

## Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Sunak became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on 25 October 2022. He is the first non-white person and the first Hindu to become prime minister. With a net worth of £730 million, he is the richest British prime minister since Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby. Most of the people who have been Prime Minister in the past were also rich, although there were a few exceptions.

Sunak is also the youngest prime minister since William Pitt the Younger.

In May 2024, Sunak announced that the next general election would be held on 4 July 2024.

On election day, a record number of Conservative MPs either retired or lost their seats at the election. Three Cabinet members stood down and eight full members and four who attended Cabinet lost their seats, the highest number of sitting cabinet seat losses in history. Labour ultimately won the general election, ending 14 years of Conservative government, and Sunak conceded the election on 5 July. In his resignation speech before tending his resignation to the King, Sunak apologised to Conservative voters and candidates for the party's heavy defeat, and announced his intention to resign as party leader once a new leader is elected.

## Personal life

In 2009, he married fashion designer Akshata Murty. She is the daughter of the Indian billionaire N. R. Narayana Murthy and businesswoman Sudha Murty. They have two children.

They live at a manor house in the village of Kirby Sigston, near to Northallerton, North Yorkshire. They also own a mews house in Kensington in central London, a flat in South Kensington, London, and a penthouse apartment in Santa Monica, California.

## Infobox (officeholder)

- **embed**: yes
- **office4**: Chancellor of the Exchequer
- **primeminister4**: Boris Johnson
- **term start4**: 13 February 2020
- **term end4**: 5 July 2022
- **predecessor4**: Sajid Javid
- **successor4**: Nadhim Zahawi
- **office5**: Chief Secretary to the Treasury
- **primeminister5**: Boris Johnson
- **term start5**: 24 July 2019
- **term end5**: 13 February 2020
- **predecessor5**: Liz Truss
- **successor5**: Steve Barclay
- **title6**: Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
- **subterm6**: 2018–2019
- **suboffice6**: Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Government, Local Government


## Infobox (officeholder)

- **honorific-prefix**: The Right Honourable
- **name**: Rishi Sunak
- **image**: Portrait of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (cropped).jpg
- **caption**: Official portrait, 2022
- **office**: 57th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- **monarch**: Charles III
- **term start**: 25 October 2022
- **term end**: 5 July 2024
- **predecessor**: Liz Truss
- **successor**: Keir Starmer
- **office1**: Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom), Leader of the Opposition
- **monarch1**: Charles III
- **deputy1**: Oliver Dowden
- **primeminister1**: Keir Starmer
- **term start1**: 5 July 2024
- **term end1**: 2 November 2024
- **predecessor1**: Keir Starmer
- **successor1**: Kemi Badenoch
- **office3**: Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party
- **term start3**: 24 October 2022
- **term end3**: 2 November 2024
- **predecessor3**: Liz Truss
- **successor3**: Kemi Badenoch
- **parliament7**: United Kingdom
- **constituency mp7**: Richmond and Northallerton
- **prior term7**: Richmond (Yorks) (2015–2024)
- **term start7**: 7 May 2015
- **predecessor7**: William Hague
- **majority7**: 12,185 (25.1%)
- **birth place**: Southampton, England
- **party**: Conservative Party (UK), Conservative
- **children**: 2