An unforeseen Conservative party leadership race earlier this month has resulted in former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak having become the next prime minister of the United Kingdom. Sunak secured well clear of the 100 votes of confidence which members need in order to become party leader; his only opposition, Penny Mordaunt, had secured a mere thirty.
Sunak was born in Southampton in 1980. His parents are African-born Indians, with his grandfather having been born in Gujranwala in modern-day Pakistan. Sunak previously worked for Goldman Sachs as an analyst and then as a hedge fund manager before entering politics.
He is now the UK’s first ethnically Asian prime minister, and the first practicing Hindu to hold such a position.
