Rishi Sunak: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2022

He was the 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 since the 2015 general election.

The Right Honourable Rishi Sunak MP
Sunak in 2023
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Incumbent
Assumed office 25 October 2022
Monarch	Charles III
Deputy	Dominic Raab Oliver Dowden
Preceded by	Liz Truss
Leader of the Conservative Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 24 October 2022
Chairman	Nadhim Zahawi Greg Hands Richard Holden
Preceded by	Liz Truss
Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office 13 February 2020 – 5 July 2022
Prime Minister	Boris Johnson
Preceded by	Sajid Javid
Succeeded by	Nadhim Zahawi
Chief Secretary to the Treasury
In office 24 July 2019 – 13 February 2020
Prime Minister	Boris Johnson
Preceded by	Liz Truss
Succeeded by	Steve Barclay
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Government
In office 9 January 2018 – 24 July 2019
Prime Minister	Theresa May
Preceded by	Marcus Jones
Succeeded by	Luke Hall
Member of Parliament for Richmond (Yorks)
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 May 2015
Preceded by	William Hague
Majority	27,210 (47.2%)
Personal details
Born	(1980-05-12) 12 May 1980 (age 43) Southampton, England
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Akshata Murty (m. 2009)
Children	2
Relatives	N. R. Narayana Murthy (father-in-law) Sudha Murty (mother-in-law)
Education	Lincoln College, Oxford (BA) Stanford University (MBA)
Website	rishisunak.com

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, and first Hindu person to become prime minister of the United Kingdom.

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.

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.

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. In general, Prime Ministers have more money than most people.

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

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.