British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's tenure is in a soup due to the latest "partygate" scandal". Amid the ensuing row, one name is doing the rounds as a frontrunner to replace him is Indian-origin Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
About Rishi Sunak
- Born in Southampton to British Indian parents, Rishi Sunak Rishi went to Winchester College and studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University. He was also a Fulbright Scholar at Stanford University (USA) where he studied for his MBA.
- After graduating, he worked for Goldman Sachs and later as a partner at the hedge fund firms The Children's Investment Fund Management and Theleme Partners
- He is married to Akshata Murty, the daughter of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy, and they have two young daughters Krishna and Anoushka.
- Rishi Sunak co-founded a 1-billion-pound global investment firm and specialised in investing in small British businesses before his entry into politics
- The MP for Richmond in Yorkshire first entered the UK Parliament in 2015 and has quickly risen up the Tory party ranks. "I wanted to make that same positive difference to people as their Member of Parliament and I was first elected to represent this wonderful constituency in 2015 and re-elected in 2017 and 2019," says Sunak.
- Sunak made history in February 2020 when he was appointed first Chancellor of the Exchequer of Indian heritage.
- If the Tory party murmurings and bookie betting odds are anything to go by, then the 41-year-old may well be in line to make history as Britain’s first Indian-origin Prime Minister.
- Sunak is leading the charge for the country’s economic fightback against the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Many of the schemes he put in place as finance minister, including the furlough-based Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and COVID support grants for struggling businesses over the course of several lockdowns have proved largely popular. However, proposed tax hikes coming up from this April and consistently rising energy and cost of living costs have proved less popular within the Conservative Party base.
Britain PM Johnson's office is under fire after an email emerged showing his private secretary invited people to a lawn party at 10 Downing Street when the rest of the country was under a strict Covid-19 lockdown.
Yesterday, Johnson was rocked by new claims his staff held lockdown-breaching parties in Downing Street on the eve of the funeral for Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II's late husband. Johnson, 57, has apologised for attending one event in May 2020 but the latest revelation - takes the scandal to another level.
Several dozen staff at his office held two separate boozy bashes on April 16, 2021, when the country was under strict Covid rules and just hours before Philip's funeral, which was limited to just 30 guests due to Covid rules. That resulted in the stark image of the Queen, 95, sitting alone in a church pew mourning her husband of 73 years.
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