Core summary:
1. Former British Chancellor Rich Sunak officially announced his participation in the Prime Minister's election. As of now, his support rate is significantly ahead of other opponents. If this momentum continues, this "post-80s" Indian MP is very likely to become the first minority prime minister in British history. As a minority, his unique life experience is inseparable from his unique life experience.
2. Sunak grew up in a middle-class family with a new immigrant. His parents attached great importance to Sunak's education. He studied at Winchester Public School and Oxford University . The good growth environment and learning atmosphere laid the foundation for his future development. While studying at Stanford, Sunak met his future wife Akshata Murthy. Her father was the founder of India's second largest IT company. Therefore, with the help of his father-in-law, Sunak developed rapidly in the financial field.
3. Sunak won more than half of the Conservative Party’s support rate in the constituency by admitting his family, showing his understanding of the constituency and showing his personal charm. He replaced retired William Heg in 2015, thus officially starting his political career. In this process, "Brexit" is the principle he has always adhered to. After Theresa May quit , Sunak fully supported Boris Johnson , which vowed to "get Brexit", and was reused, becoming the British Chancellor of the Exchequer and completely transformed into a political clerk.
4. Nowadays, the Conservative Party, which is eager to get rid of Johnson 's negative assets and low support, urgently needs a talent with strong professional ability to lead the way. The important topic of this party's first election is high inflation and high living costs. Sunak undoubtedly has professional advantages in this. But being prime minister means you can't just focus on financial issues. For example, when asked about its relationship with China, Sunak said, "We need a mature and balanced relationship." But in fact, it is not easy to maintain this principle, and this young Indian expert politician needs to be more prepared.
Author｜Member of China Translation Association International Political Columnist Hu Yukun
Sayed Javid (left) and Rishi Sunak (center) announced their resignation on July 5. Source: Getty
From July 5 to 7, in the last straw that broke Boris Johnson - the resignation wave of cabinet ministers, two senior South Asian officials were the first to attack: former Health Secretary Sajid Javid (6-born Pakistani) and former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak (Indian).
Faced with the vacant seats of the party leader and prime minister left by Johnson, the Conservative Party’s top leaders set off a position war that will last until September: including Sunak, who “officially announced” to run for election 28 hours after Johnson resigned, a total of 11 members of parliament announced their election, and 8 were nominated for more than 20 party members and qualified for election.
▎Sunak ranked first with 115 votes in the third round of the British Conservative Party’s top election on July 18. Tugenhart won 31 votes, with the least number of votes eliminated. Source: Reuters
This unprecedentedly tragic battle for the prime minister has ended three rounds of voting, eliminating four people. Voting results show that Sunak's approval rating is significantly ahead of other opponents. If this momentum continues, this fall, the Indian MP6, a post-80s Indian MP, is very likely to become the first minority prime minister in British history.
Sunak, who is expected to make history, is a young politician among the many bigwigs of the Conservative Party. This professional with a background in finance and financial background can approach the central stage like never before in the traditional British political arena. This is not only the result of the current trend, but also inseparable from his unique life experience and personal career.
"No working-class friends": The inheritance of professional middle-class families
Just less than two days after Sunak officially announced his election for prime minister, a video he interviewed 21 years ago reappeared on the Internet, causing a big and small controversy.
"I have aristocratic friends, I have upper-class friends, I have working-class friends...uh, no working-class."
Sunak said in the documentary, "I have no working-class friends." Source: BBC
When asked about "Friends", Sunak, who was 21 years old, answered this way, and also used it to help his parents explain why he was sent to a noble boarding school, which is expensive (currently more than £43,000 a year).
This controversial video is from the BBC's documentary series "The Middle Class: Their Rise and Spread" released in 2001. The film uses a historical perspective to review different keywords from various stages of middle class development from the Victorian era to the modern era. It also gives people a glimpse of the important impact of this Indian middle-class immigrant family on Sunak's life growth.
Sunak once studied at Winchester Public School. Source: BBC
According to a report released by the British House of Commons in August 2020, between 2016 and 2019 before the epidemic, among different ethnic groups in the UK, Indians had the smallest gap with whites in terms of family disposable income, salary, employment rate, income distribution equality, etc., and even partially exceeded the latter. This is consistent with the British society's statement that Indians are the most important ethnic minorities, or even no less than whites.
Of course, what determines Sunak's family conditions, growth environment, and personal career is not the "leader" status of Indians. When talking about his identity, Sunak himself also said: "I always consider myself to be a professional middle class and do not think that Asians are the decisive traits."
In other words, Compared with ethnic identity, "professional middle class" is the keyword of Sunak's family.
On May 12, 1980, Sunak was born in the port city of southern England, Southampton . Although his ancestral home is Punjab, India, his father Yashuweer Sunak and his mother Usha Sunak both grew up in East Africa ( Kenya and Tanzania ). It was not until the 1960s that my father and mother went across the country to England to start a new life.
▎Sunak's father Yashuwell Sunak (first from right), mother Usha Sunak (third from right) and children. Rishi Sunak (first from left) is the eldest son of the family. Source: Twitter
Sunak said in his video of announcing his campaign: "Family is everything to me." In particular, it tells how my grandmother was the first to land in the UK, seek a job, save money, and bring the whole family (including her mother Wusha) to the UK just to seek a better life.
Sunak grandmother. Source: Twitter
Since then, hard work has become the goal of Sunak’s parents taking root in the UK. Yashuwell became a registered general practitioner , while Wusha became a pharmacist, and later ran a local pharmacy. Because of the similarity of careers, the two met and got married, and settled in Southampton.
Sunak’s parents created a new middle-class family with their profession, which is also where Sunak’s “story begins.”
It seems that it is not surprising that parents attach great importance to Sunak's education and growth. With the full support of parents from middle-class families, Sunak, who had excellent grades, entered Winchester Public School. As the oldest nine public schools in the UK, , here we give him elite education and a "high-end circle of friends".
From then on, Sunak further showed his excellence. At Winchester Public School, this second-generation immigrants stood out from the "elite circle of friends" and served as the chairman of the boys' student union (head boy) and editor-in-chief of the school newspaper.
In April this year, several British media confirmed that the Sunaks donated more than £100,000 to Winchester Public School in order to thank his alma mater for putting him on a different track of life and using it as a scholarship to fund children who do not have the opportunity to study here.
Sunaks donated more than £100,000 in April this year to support children's studies. Source: After graduating from EPA
, he continued his path as an "elite academic master" and entered the Lincoln College , which has a history of nearly 600 years at Oxford University, majoring in philosophy, politics, and economics. It is the major that is most suitable for his professional political career.
During his time in Oxford, Sunak participated in political activities directly for the first time and interned at the Conservative Campaign Headquarters. Of course, this did not affect his academic master's attributes. In 2001, he graduated successfully from Oxford with a first class with outstanding academic performance.
A good growth environment and a smooth learning path among his peers have laid an important foundation for Sunak's future development. The professional middle-class spirit inherited by the family will accompany him in his next 20 years of personal life.
"Business elite" to "political bosses": after professionalism and "noble people" support
, Sunak did not directly devote himself to politics, but entered Goldman Sachs Group , worked as an analyst, and embarked on his financial career. Three years later, he joined the TCI hedge fund management company and became a partner in 2006. During this period, he also studied at Stanford University's Business School through the Fulbright program and obtained a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in 2006.
The United States has not had a long experience in studying, working and living, but it has a great impact on Sunak's life.
At Stanford, he met his future wife Akshata Murthy, who married in 2009. Akshata's father is the founder of Infosys, India's second largest IT company, and is known as the "father of India's IT industry".
Sunak's father-in-law Narayana Murti (first left), mother-in-law (second left) and Sunak took a photo at Akshata Murti (second right) wedding.
Because of working and living in the United States, Sunak obtained a US green card and held it for a long time. It was not until last year that after serving as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, facing pressure from public opinion and political opponents, that he took advantage of the opportunity to visit the United States for official visits to the United States and gave up the US permanent residence.
personal financial expertise and father-in-law's strong support, Sunak has been getting smoother and smoother in his professional field. While following his former colleague and joining the Theleme Partners he opened, he is also responsible for running the Catamaran Ventures, a father-in-law.
If the plot develops as such, the UK will have one less politician, and the world will have one more top venture capitalist . But In 2014, internal changes in the Conservative Party’s top leaders changed Sunak’s life trajectory.
William Hager, who served as a member of parliament for 26 years, decided to retire and no longer participate in the 2015 general election. The vacancy he left was the only thing in the Conservative Party's 100-year "iron vote area". Whoever was nominated for election almost booked the position of the successor of the MP.
William Hege. Source: Independent
Because of this, about 90 people have been included in the Conservative Party’s candidate selection list. Among the four people who entered the final selection, the three other than Sunak were not ordinary people. They either participated in the local management and service of the Conservative Party, or served in the army for many years.
Surprisingly, in the first round of voting for four people, Sunak received more than half of the 200 local Conservative Party members.
In a half-hour speech for each person, Sunak talked about his parents’ experience of serving the community, his influence and motivation for himself. "Create equal opportunities for success for the constituents like parents create opportunities for themselves" has become a common election rhetoric used by Sunak.
On July 12, Rich Sunak began his Conservative Party leader campaign in London. Source: gulfnews
admitted his original family and his luck in growing up, showing his understanding and understanding of the constituency, and also said that he admired the legendary Indian cricket athlete - "Tiger" Patdy. Sunak showed his personal charm and was recognized by the constituency.
As a veteran Conservative Party boss, Hege was also impressed by it. He not only decided to support Sunak's campaign, but also became an important political ally of Sunak since then, providing advice and support for him.
In May 2015, was elected in this constituency where more than 95% of local white people and only about 1% of Asian voters. Sunak, 34, overwhelmed the other six opponents with a vote rate of 51.4%, and was easily elected. This business elite only started his own political career at this time.
firmly supports Brexit: "My principles are first."
First entered Parliament, Sunak entered the Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs Committee and directly participated in the legislation on internal affairs governance in the UK. At the same time, he also presided over the research of black and minority groups at the well-known right-wing think tank in the UK, "Policy Exchange", and wrote a research report on the situation of this group.
is precisely because Sunak has long adhered to the traditional Conservative philosophy, and his attention is exactly the areas and groups in the UK that are most vulnerable to the impact of European integration . "Brexit" and "European doubt" naturally become one of his most firm ideas.
According to his own speech at the 2021 Conservative Party Congress, during the Brexit referendum, he was warned that "if you support Brexit, your political career will be finished before the beginning", but he was unmoved and responded "My principles are the first priority."
Sunak once said in his speech that the UK will not seek to extend the transition period for Brexit. Source: Getty
In the 2016 Brexit referendum, Sunak not only voted to support Brexit, but also wrote a report for the "Policy Research Center", a think tank that upholds Thatcherism . It recommended that the UK build a free port in the post-Brexit era, and called for the establishment of a retail bond market for small and medium-sized enterprises to expand returns and minimize Brexit losses.
Unlike politicians who shouted the slogan "Brexit", Sunak used his professional ability to draw a Brexit blueprint and continued to win the trust of constituency voters and the Conservative government.
In 2017, the Conservative Party was frustrated in the early general election and a "floating parliament" appeared, but Sunak instead elected re-election with a greater advantage. At the same time, he was appointed by then Prime Minister Theresa May as Deputy Secretary of State for Local Government Affairs and entered the government.
At that time, the negotiations on the "breakup agreement" with EU were making the British government worried. The draft Brexit agreement that Aunt Mei and the EU have tried their best to negotiate has been set in parliament again and again. As a member of the government, Sunak, who aims to Brexit, supported Aunt Mei in the parliamentary votes for the three Brexit agreements and firmly opposed the motion for the second "Brexit" referendum.
The 76th British Prime Minister, Theresa May. Source: Times
Brexit problem eventually forced Aunt Mei to resign and step down. Sunak chose to fully support Boris Johnson, who vowed to "get Brexit" in 2019. The latter also became a key figure in Sunak's political career to get to the next level.
Out of tireness of the delay in the Brexit issue, the British people not only allowed Sunak's constituency to win votes, but also allowed the Conservatives to dominate the parliament with absolute advantage. Johnson, who has obtained public authorization, has also reused Sunak since this year.
When Johnson took over as Aunt Mei, Sunak was appointed as the Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, entered the cabinet as the deputy of the Secretary of the Finance Department, and the next day he became a member of the Queen's consulting agency, Privy Council .During the campaign at the end of the same year, Sunak even represented the Conservative Party at seven TV debates held by the BBC and British independent TV station (ITV).
In 2019, Sunak attended the TV debate held by the BBC and the British Independent Television (ITV) on behalf of the Conservative Party. Source: Daily Telegraph
At this time, Sunak's status within the Conservative Party and the government has been significantly improved. After participating in the legislation on grassroots affairs governance, he began to use his original expertise - financial affairs at the highest level of the government.
Half a year later, as the UK officially entered the "post-Brexit" era, Johnson also reorganized the cabinet: then-Cancel Secretary Javid resigned, and Sunak, who was less than 40 years old, took over, becoming the highest-level official in the financial field, and headed to the peak of his professional political career.
It was also from this time that Sunak, as the label of Johnson's "direct line" and "hard supporter", has become a recognized view in British society.
March 10, 2019 Sunak and Boris Johnson were at 10 Downing Street. Source: tatler
After all, Javid's resignation was because he did not appoint Johnson's chief consultant , Dominic Cummings, and insisted on not dismissing his original consultant.
British media even said that Sunak's appointment marks that the Ministry of Finance is no longer independent of Downing Street (Prime Minister's Office).
In just seven years, this "political appointment" for professional talents seems to mark Sunak's complete transformation from a business elite to a veritable political figure.
After seven years of political work, can you become the "national leader" in difficulties?
entered the core layer of power, and Sunak ushered in an unprecedented period of "opportunities and challenges coexisting".
The COVID-19 pandemic is coming in full swing, which is a heavy blow to the British economy. The trade frictions between Britain and Europe in the post-Brexit era have amplified the obstruction of Britain's overall foreign trade.
The expansion and persistence of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has led to soaring prices including energy. The highest inflation record in 40 years has made the British people miserable, and has even prompted labor-management disputes to intensify in many industries. All industries such as railways, aviation, medical care, and lawyers have raised the banner of "strike".
During this period, As the Minister of Finance, Sunak's pressure can be imagined.
▎On June 21, 2022, the RMT (Railway, Maritime and Transport Workers) Guild held a protest outside the Liverpool Street Station in the UK to protest unsatisfied compensation, government policies and working conditions. Source: Alamy
In order to fight the epidemic, it offended ineligible workers. The career retention scheme has another wrong payment of about £3.5 billion.
The "Eat Out to Help Out" subsidy program that supports the catering industry and encourages people to eat out is also a mixed reputation. A report from the University of Warwick in the UK believes that the move has exacerbated the risk of infection, with the number of infections in the new crown increased by 8% to 17%.
Eat Out to Help Out signboard. Source: British "Heropshire Star"
In addition, "having a high position and having a lot of right and wrong" also came to him. The US green card dispute, the "party door" incident, the wife's "non-settled" tax avoidance dispute, family property declaration... The opposition Labor Party has put pressure on it more than once.
But it happens to be the dilemma faced by the Conservatives and the UK, providing Sunak with unprecedented opportunities.
In September 2020, British market research institution Ipsos pointed out that Sunak became the highest public satisfaction minister since 1978. During the G7 summit last year, the world's lowest corporate tax rate agreement he chaired and passed was also seen as a highlight on the international stage during his tenure.
Sunak participated in the G7 summit.Source: Investment Week
Nowadays, the Conservative Party, which is eager to get rid of Johnson's negative assets and low approval rating, needs a professional and capable talent to prove to the British people that they are still a ruling party with governance capabilities and can solve problems.
Will Sunak be that answer?
After taking the lead in the first two rounds of voting in the party's first election, Sunak faces a more intense competition. Among the only five remaining people, the two possible "new iron ladies" Modant and Tras are becoming more and more optimistic, and Badnoch and Tugenhart are not ordinary people.
Currently, candidates who continue to participate in the competition for the head of the party: (from left to right are) Sunak, Tras, Badnoch and Modant. Source: AP
The important topics of this party’s first election are high inflation and high cost of living, and Sunak undoubtedly has professional advantages in this. Compared with competitors who call for tax cuts, he also pointed out from a professional perspective that the inflation problem must be solved first, and criticized the plans proposed by other "non-professionals" in the party for being nothing more than "fairy tales".
The economic policy concept is inconsistent, which is also one of the important reasons why he took the lead in parting ways with Johnson.
However, let alone whether the British people who urgently need money to live with their lives can accept this short-term pain, for Sunak, serving as prime minister means that what he needs to pay attention to is not just financial issues.
For example, at the second TV debate, Foreign Minister Tras aggressively asked Sunak whether economic and trade exchanges with China should be expanded.
July 17, Trass (right), Sunak and other candidates held a TV debate. Source: Getty
Indeed, in the context of the British political attitude towards China becoming tougher in the British political arena, Sunak, as the Minister of Finance and a professional, did not speak much on China for economic and trade issues, but it seemed more moderate and pragmatic.
"The debate on China issues always lacks careful consideration." In a speech delivered at the mayor's residence in London last year, Sunak pointed out the importance of improving Sino-UK trade relations.
"The fact is that China is not only one of the most important economies in the world, but also a country with different values from our values. We need a mature and balanced relationship. This means that we must open our eyes and see their growing international influence, and we must also continue to adhere to our principles and positions on issues that violate our values."
In September 2021, Sunak delivered a speech at the mayor's residence of London. Source: Reuters
Compared to Modant, who is more tough than Johnson, Tlas, who has created the image of "New Iron Lady" on tank , Tugenhart, the founder of the "China Research Group" who was sanctioned by China last year, and Badnoch, who has almost no voice on China, is already a bit alternative.
But the same thing is true, being a minister of the finance department is completely different from being a prime minister.
In today's British political arena, Sunak, who is not promoted, may still not need to speak out on sensitive issues such as Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Once he becomes the prime minister, not to mention British public opinion and the Conservative Party, it is not easy for Sunak to maintain the principle of "mature and balanced relationship" in his words and deeds.
Not to mention such important diplomatic affairs, even on the issue of the Northern Ireland Protocol, Sunak's opponents have begun to accuse him of being too weak and not conducive to maintaining the internal unity and stability of Britain.
British MP Stephen Farry believes that Sunak made the "worst choice" on the "Northern Ireland Protocol". Source: Getty
As the British " Financial Times " said, compared to the opponents, Sunak now needs to "change gears".
It seems that in order to transform from a popular into a real national pilot, this young Indian expert politician needs to further "break the circle" and make more preparations.
