Rishi Sunak Appointed British Prime Minister After Meeting King Charles
"Rishi Sunak has been formally appointed prime minister, having met King Charles at Buckingham Palace.
At 42, Sunak is the youngest U.K. prime minister in over 200 years. He is also both the country’s first Asian and first Hindu leader.
He takes over following months of chaos within the Conservative Party which saw the downfall of Boris Johnson and the short but chaotic tenure of Liz Truss.
His predecessor’s swiftly abandoned agenda of borrowing and tax cuts spooked the markets and tanked the party’s poll ratings.
Speaking in Downing Street shortly after assuming office, Sunak said he would “fix” the “mistakes” made by Truss.
And he warned the country was facing a “profound economic crisis.”
✓ RUSSIAN NEWS AGENCY
Sunak officially takes office as UK Prime Minister — Buckingham Palace
LONDON, October 25. /TASS/. New Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak has officialy become UK’s Prime Minister after being invited to form a government by King Charles, according to the distributed photographs of the audience which took place at Buckingham Palace.
Now Sunak, 42, will head to Downing Street, his new residece, where he will address the UK residents. He is the first prime minister to be appointed by King Charles III, who took the throne on September 8 after Queen Elizabeth II’s death.
Sunak is replacing Liz Truss, who on October 20 announced her resignation, after her failed economic policy and against the backdrop of growing discontent among her colleagues in the ruling Conservative party. In all, she spent less than 50 days as prime minister, thus setting an anti-record.
Sunak became prime minister on the heels of the Conservative Party’s announcement on Monday. Both of his rivals, ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt withdrew from the race. As the local media reported, neither Johnson nor Mordaunt seemed to have gathered the necessary 100 votes from MPs to advance to the next round of parliamentary voting.
✓ Unusual Prime Minister
Sunak has become the first UK Prime Minister of color, the first Hindu and the first ethnic Indian to head the British cabinet.
✓ He is a third-generation immigrant whose family moved to the UK’s Southampton from Kenya and British Tanganyika (modern-day Tanzania) in the 1960s.
Sunak was born into a family of doctors and pharmacists. He was educated at Oxford and had a career in finance and investment management. He did not become a member of the House of Commons until 2015, having traded a very successful career as an investor for politics. From February 2020 to July 2022, he was head of the UK Treasury.
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