After the surprise resignation of Sajid Javid in a ministerial reshuffle, British PM Boris Johnson has appointed Rishi Sunak as his new finance minister.
London| Indian-origin lawmaker Rishi Sunak was named as the UK’s new finance minister on Thursday by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a Cabinet reshuffle.
First elected to parliament in 2015, Sunak previously served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the second in charge to the finance minister, supervising public spending.
Born in 1980, Sunak attended the prestigious Winchester College before going on to study Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University.
He also has an MBA from Stanford University in the United States.
Sunak’s father was a doctor and his mother ran a chemist shop. Before entering politics he worked for investment bank Goldman Sachs and a hedge fund, then co-founded an investment firm.
His wife is the daughter of Indian billionaire and co-founder of IT services company Infosys, Narayana Murthy.
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He is seen as a rising star in the Conservative Party, he is regularly put forward by the government to do media interviews, and stood in for Johnson in some televised debates during last year’s election campaign.
In an interview with Business Standard in July 2019, Sunak said that Narayana Murthy was a great supporter of his political ambitions.
When Sunak was elected MP in 2015, Narayana Murthy had then said, “I am very happy that Rishi has won convincingly in Richmond-Yorks with such a majority. He and Akshata worked very hard, beat the pavement and communicated his merit, integrity and his vision for his constituency.”
Rishi Sunak has two daughters Krishna and Anoushka
There are two other Indian-origin cabinet ministers in the Johnson government – Home Secretary Priti Patel and International Development Secretary Alok Sharma.
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