British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday resigned after days of defections, and flurry of resignations plunged the Conservative Party-led government into a deeper political turmoil. Till the Conservatives choose their new leader, Johnson will remain incharge of the country’s affairs.
Johnson’s resignation has now triggered a leadership crisis for the Tories, the common term to address the conservatives. They will have to elect a new party leader, who will go ahead and become the new Prime Minister of the UK.
There are multiple contenders in conservative party who would want to take control of 10 Downing Street. Among the names like Liz Truss, Jeremy Hunt, Ben Wallace, Penny Mordaunt and Nadhim Zahawi, there’s another standout MP who could fight for the top post. Rishi Sunak, an Indian-origin MP who resigned as the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Tuesday, has been at the centre of attention for his policies during the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the “partygate” scandal that engulfed the Tory.
Born to Indian parents who moved to the UK from East Africa, Sunak has attended the Winchester College private school and studied in Oxford.
Rishi Sunak, who happens to be son-in-law of N.R. Narayana Murthy, the founder of the Bengaluru-based IT giant Infosys, came to limelight when he became the treasury chief of the UK in 2020. In his post, Sunak had responsibility to deal with the UK economy during the worst economic crisis caused by the pandemic.
According to Associated Press, Sunak also formulated policies to help businesses and workers tide over the impact of the pandemic. A program worth 410 billion pounds focusing on job retention was also launched by Sunak.
Rishi Sunak could not keep himself away from controversies despite his efforts to steer British economy through the pandemic. In the “partygate” scandal, the British Police fined him and PM Johnson for attending a birthday party at Downing Street in the middle of the lockdown.
Recently, Sunak was involved in another controversy when reports surfaced that Akshata Murthy, his wife and Narayana Murthy’s daughter, avoided payment of taxes on her overseas income and that Sunak did not surrender his US green card while serving in the British government.
In a move that caused flurry of resignations from Ministers and Tory MPs, Sunak had quit the Boris Johnson government along with the former UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid. “The public rightly expect the government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously,” Sunak had said in his letter.
“For me to step down as Chancellor while the world is suffering the economic consequences of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and other serious challenges is a decision that I have not taken lightly,” Sunak wrote.
Reportedly, he had also clashed with Boris Johnson over spending.
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