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As Boris Johnson’s partygate troubles mount and members of his own Conservative Party demand he step down as the British Prime Minister, one name is doing the rounds as a frontrunner to take charge ? his Indian-origin Chancellor and Downing Street neighbour Rishi Sunak
According to a report by PTI, The UK-born son of a pharmacist mother and a National Health Service (NHS) general practitioner (GP) father is an Oxford University and Stanford graduate. He is married to Akshata Murty, the daughter of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy, and the couple has two young daughters Krishna and Anoushka
The MP for Richmond in Yorkshire first entered the UK Parliament in 2015 and has quickly risen up the Tory party ranks as a staunch Brexiteer, who had backed Johnson’s strategy to leave the European Union (EU)
From working in my mum’s tiny chemist shop to my experience building large businesses, I have seen how we should support free enterprise and innovation to ensure Britain has a stronger future, Sunak had said during the Brexit referendum
He co-founded a 1-billion-pound global investment firm and specialised in investing in small British businesses before his entry into politics
As the first Chancellor of the Exchequer of Indian heritage, Sunak made history in February 2020 when he was appointed to the most important UK Cabinet post
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
“No, definitely not. Seeing what the Prime Minister has to deal with, this is a job hard enough for me to do,” Sunak said back in October 2020, when asked if he had prime ministerial ambitions
But a lot has happened since, with Sunak leading the charge for the country’s economic fightback against the COVID-19 pandemic
