Rishi Sunak, the minister who precipitated Johnson’s downfall and who now dreams of succeeding him

Johnson’s former finance minister, Rishi Sunak, He won the first round of the Conservative primary With the greatest support among the party’s deputies who voted in the first ballot, the last two candidates reached 80 votes. Now he is the favourite. Sunak was the first minister to resign after the lies scandal about Chris Pincher that caused a tsunami of resignations (more than 60 in his cabinet) that led to Johnson’s downfall. In fact, Johnson’s supporters accuse him of being a traitor and have launched an internal campaign against him In an attempt to avoid becoming the new leader of the party, they seek the support of Liz Truss. However, Sunak starts with an advantage.

Sunak, 42 ​​years old, is Son of two Indian immigrants who settled in Southampton, in southern England. He studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University, then worked as an investment analyst at Goldman Sachs and other hedge funds before turning to politics in 2014, when he was elected to Parliament. Boris Johnson appointed Sunak as finance minister in July 2019 when no one knew him. It became popular during the pandemic for its €40,000 economic package to support employees and businesses That included a job retention programme, which was supposed to prevent mass unemployment in the UK. That’s when he started talking about Sunak as a possible successor to Johnson if Johnson left him.

He is married to Akshata Murti, the sixth richest man in India. The couple have two children. It was precisely the scandal of his wife that offended him politically. The scandal erupted last April, when it emerged that Morty was not a resident of the UK, and that he had paid around £20m in India and not in the UK where he resides. The Labor leader described this situation as “blatant hypocrisy”. Before the dimension that reached the scandal, Morty announced that he decided to change his status And that from now on he will pay all his taxes from global companies in the UK.

Sunak’s fame and reputation were damaged, further dented when the “Partygate” scandal stained his name. Sunak was one of the attendees at a banned party in Downing Street and the police were fined, as was Johnson.. Tensions with Johnson began long before the Pincher affair. They started approving this year’s budget when Senk announced a tax increase to continue investing in public services and not start reducing it until the public debt was reduced. Actually, Snack Represents the center-left wing of the party. Johnson wanted to please the right wing by cutting taxes. The rest of the candidates are proposing a tax cut, a promise that Snack has publicly criticized.

Many British commentators think so Sunak’s decision to quit the government wasn’t spontaneous and he’s been thinking about it for a long time. They say that the video with which he opened his campaign was ready long ago. And he did not mention in the video his billionaire wife at any time, knowing that her name may renew the controversy. A video clip went viral of a BBC report years ago in which he admitted that he had no working class friends. Despite campaigning by Johnson loyalists against him, other politicians close to Johnson such as Steve Barclay supported him. He is a favorite of Conservative MPs who select primary candidates. But it is not the most supportive of party members, who will vote in the primaries.