LONDON

- Rishi Sunak is making history by being the first British Prime Minister of immigrant background in the country's history, as well as the first non-white prime minister to reach this position.

Sunak's path to the premiership was not paved with roses, after he failed to compete against the resigned Prime Minister Liz Terrace to succeed former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, despite receiving wide support from Conservative Party deputies, but he did not seem to convince the party's constituency bloc (130 thousand members). .

Just as Barack Obama was the first black and African American president, Rishi Sunak achieved this feat in Britain;

He is of Indian origin, and observers believe that history did justice to him in a short time, after it became clear that his warnings of the economic plan of Liz Truss would inflict great losses on the country, and that was what he actually was.

Sunak won the bet on the failure of Liz Terrace's economic plan shortly after she became prime minister (Reuters)

Indian immigrant

Rishi Sunak is a newcomer to holding senior positions in his country. He did not become a Conservative parliamentarian until 2010, and held small government positions in Theresa May's government, before becoming Treasurer in 2020 in Boris Johnson's government.

Sonak was born to parents of Indian origin, who came to Britain, so the father worked in medicine and the mother owned a pharmacy, which gave him a comfortable financial situation, which qualified him to enter the prestigious Oxford University.

Over the years, Rishi Sunak kept away from politics, as he was preoccupied with the field of finance and business, and worked as an advisor to the largest banking institutions in the world.

Sonak is often known as one of the richest politicians in the country, and this is due to the wealth of his wife (Akshata Murthy), who is one of the richest women in the United Kingdom, and about her wealth aroused a lot of controversy after it was revealed that her companies benefited from tax havens away from Britain.

In normal circumstances, Sunak was the right man to succeed Boris Johnson and lead the country in its worst economic conditions, where inflation is the highest in 40 years, instead of economic stagnation, as he showed skill in dealing with the Corona epidemic, and managed the United Kingdom treasury well.

But the Conservative Party base had its own calculations and other questions, and preferred Liz Truss over Rishi Sunak, who then quietly withdrew and remained adamant in his position that Liz Truss's promises would not succeed.


coincidences of history

Historical coincidences played an important role in the rise of Rishi Sunak’s star, starting with his assumption of the position of Treasury Minister in difficult circumstances, represented in the Corona pandemic period, then Sunak managed the crisis with high professionalism that contributed to not losing hundreds of thousands of their jobs, providing aid to needy groups, and soft loans to affected companies. from closing.

Then it will be Sunak, the straw that broke Boris Johnson's back, when Sunak announced his resignation from this government and accused Johnson of not serving the interest of the country, after the prime minister was involved in many scandals in which he violated the rules of government work, and Sunak's resignation constituted a strong blow to Johnson that forced him to resign his post.

And when he lost the race for prime minister to Liz Terrace, everyone thought that Rishi Sunak's political path had stopped for a while, especially after it emerged that the Conservative Party bases were not prepared to accept a leader of her immigrant background.

The days were fair to Rishi Sunak, as he was repeating that Liz Terrace's economic plans are unrealistic and will exacerbate the country's crises. Indeed, Sunak's expectations were true, which increased his shares in the ranks of the Conservatives, until a conviction was formed among the Conservative Party deputies that Sunak is the man of the stage, especially with his economic background Able to understand the country's problems and work to solve them.


Sunak knows that it is his historic opportunity, despite the difficult circumstances facing the country, but an important factor that will play in his favor is to ensure the support of the parliamentary bloc for the Conservative Party. She suggests that any elections ahead of their time will carry Labor to power.

Sunak is known for his support of laws that are tough on immigrants despite his immigrant background (Reuters)

tough with immigrants

Going back to the history of Rishi Sunak voting on immigration and refugee laws, this Indian-origin politician has always been a supporter of any law that reduces the number of immigrants to the country, as well as being tough on the issue of receiving refugees.

During his leadership of the Treasury, which is the second most important ministry after the prime minister, he granted a lot of funding to all efforts to prevent the arrival of refugees through the sea canal.

Sunak did not issue any position opposing the controversial laws on immigration, such as the Citizenship and Borders Act, which paves the way for withdrawing citizenship from anyone even without informing him of the matter, or the project to deport immigrants to Rwanda, a project that is still frozen pending the decision of the British Supreme Court.

It is expected that Sunak will continue his party's hard-line policy on immigration to win over the conservative and right-wing electorate, but it may not be the priority of his government, as the priority will remain the economic files.