Source: Global People
Author: Chen Jiali
After 45 days of trying and error, Sunak won a second chance for himself.
On the 24th local time, the results of the election for the head of the ruling Conservative Party of the UK were released. Former Chancellor Rich Sunak, as the only candidate, is automatically elected as the new leader of the British Conservative Party and will serve as British Prime Minister .
Not long ago, in the last election, Sunak defeated Tras. Before that failure, he had said: Tras' radical tax cut policy would not work at all.
Sure enough, he was right.
Tras, who had only been on the stage for a month and a half, suddenly gave up after pushing the British economic situation into the abyss. Sunak seized the opportunity and once again launched an attack on the position of prime minister, becoming the first Indian Prime Minister in British history.
"Under the background of such a severe economic recession in the UK, the Conservative Party of urgently needs to launch a person who can stabilize market expectations, and Sunak has become the only suitable candidate." Kong Yuan, a scholar at the European Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the reporter of " Global People " that this may be the biggest reason why Sunak was selected.
·Sunak (left) and Trass.
The unearthed "golden man"
is completely different from the former Prime Minister and former boss Johnson . Sunak gives people the impression of being calm and restrained.
appears in public. He always wears a straight suit and neat hairstyle, which seems to always show his identity as an elite.
·Sunak (after) and Johnson.
"Duojin" is indeed the biggest label on Sunak.
In 1980, Sunak was born in an Indian immigrant family in the UK. Since childhood, he received a British aristocratic education.
After graduating from Winchester Public School, he entered Oxford University to study for political economy and philosophy. Some people laughed and said that this major is specially prepared for those who want to be prime ministers. Former British Prime Minister Cameron comes from this major. As a result, history once again confirmed this joke.
After graduating from undergraduate studies, Sunak went to the United States to further his studies and pursued his MBA degree at Stanford University .
During this period, he also did a major event that affected his life trajectory - he met the woman he liked, Akshata Murthy, and quickly married her home.
·Sunak (left) and his wife.
The wife’s family background is not ordinary.
Her father is Narayana Murthi, an Indian billionaire and co-founder of IT service giant Infosys. He was once selected as one of the 12 greatest entrepreneurs of the contemporary era by Fortune magazine.
·Sunak (first right) and father-in-law (first left), mother-in-law, wife (second right).
Before entering politics, Sunak had been in the financial circle. He worked for investment bank Goldman Sachs and an hedge fund , and also co-founded an investment company .
In 2015, he suddenly turned his attention to politics and began to run for Yorkshire MP.
, of course, the support of my father-in-law is indispensable. As a busy billionaire, he sometimes even leaves his job and flies over to canvass votes for his son-in-law and goes out to distribute flyers for his son-in-law.
With such a family background as support, Sunak has a prosperous career: he became the Minister of Finance in 5 years and won the position of Prime Minister in 7 years.
Former British Foreign Secretary William Hege even compared him with Jelly William Pitt - the latter was a MP at the age of 23 and became a "awesome role" of the prime minister at the age of 24. Hege praised Sunak, saying that he was "as young as Pitt and had an unlimited future."
Although Sunak is very rich, the reason for his previous defeat is somewhat unrelated to money -
In the early years, he accidentally said "I don't have any working-class friends" and was dug up by the media during the campaign. The opponent Tras attacked him, exuding "elite arrogance" all over his body;
He is considered the richest Conservative MP, but he has been questioned many times for tax avoidance and asset issues.In early 2022, his and his wife's wealth had exceeded 730 million pounds (about 5.98 billion yuan). But then, his wife Murthy was accused of obtaining the status of "non-British tax resident" and avoiding taxes for himself for tens of millions of pounds;
The plan he introduced when he served as the Chancellor of the Exchequer was also criticized for not relieving the suffering of the people and not being down-to-earth.
· " Guardian " related reports on Sunak's wife's tax evasion.
"He is an overly internationalized and elite character, and not being down-to-earth is a major disadvantage for him." Kong Yuan said.
The Guardian sarcastically said that it sounded unrealistic to lead the UK through a cost-of-living crisis as a rich man.
"He is not a British"
As the first Indian Prime Minister, Sunak's unique skin color seems to be another double-edged sword in front of him.
According to the BBC (BBC), Sunak once said that he did not experience much racial discrimination during his growth, but there is one thing that has always been difficult to let go.
When he was in his teens, he went out with his younger brother and sister and went to a fast food restaurant. He was taking care of his younger brother and sister, and the person sitting at the nearby dining table spoke rudely, "This is my first experience (racism), ... said something very unpleasant. He used the word P (the despicable name for Pakistani or South Asians in English). "
was insulted for no reason, Sunak will always remember the feeling: "It hurts like a needle, I still remember it freshly, and it is engraved in my memory. Insults can be manifested in many different ways."
Later he recalled that something like "can't imagine" would happen in the UK.
·Sunak's family of four.
In 2018, in an interview with the BBC, Sunak mentioned that both parents are immigrants in South Asia. "In terms of cultural education, I will go to the temple of Hindu on weekends. I am Hindu , but on Saturday I will also participate in Southampton Football Club ; it is to take into account both ends and participate in everything."
from time to time emphasizes his identity as a Hindus, which makes him add a lot of points to the international South Asian Hindu middle class. But more often, his Indian identity will become a "stumbling block".
People who are dissatisfied with his identity have begun to call and complain.
On October 22 local time, London Radio host Sangeta Miska answered a call from Conservative member Jerry on the show. Jerry pointed out that the party leader candidate Sunak "does not love England" and is not even British in the eyes of most people.
"Rich (referring to Sunak) can't win." Jerry said, "In most people's eyes, Rich is not even British. He is loyal to the United States, his family is American, they are Indian businessmen. He does not love England as much as Boris."
Although host Misca quickly hit back on Jerry's remarks, emphasizing that "he is actually British", these facts cannot reach the other party's ears at all.
· This awkward phone call was reported by the media. Kong Yuan believes that Sunak is an atypical British politician. "He is an Indian and has studied in the United States. His British characteristics are not very obvious. Then, he is very rich. This image is a certain distance from the expectations of the local British people."
"Epic" difficulty script
finally took the position of prime minister. But in the face of the mess left by Tras, is he able to turn the tide?
The answer may be: a bit difficult. On this point, Johnson has already seen the answer clearly in advance.
Originally, Johnson ended his overseas vacation early in this party election and rushed back to the UK.
However, he, who was determined to return to the position of Prime Minister, issued a statement that evening saying that he had failed to convince Sunak or another campaigner, Modant, to "get together for the sake of national interests", and therefore announced his withdrawal from the campaign.
· After Johnson announced his withdrawal, Downing Street Chief mouse-catching officer "Lary Cat" teased on his official account: I've told you a long time ago.
In Kong Yuan's opinion, Johnson is very sensible. "He saw the facts clearly, that is to say, even if the election is successful now, the split state within the party will make him unable to do anything, so he simply chooses to withdraw."
Kong Yuan believes that the British Conservative Party has reached a state of extreme division. It is very difficult for Sunak to reunite the party.
First of all, he was once considered a "betrayer".
Sunak was once Johnson's "fan". In order to clarify his support for Johnson, he even wrote an article in " Times " with two other Conservative MPs. The title is very eye-catching - "The Conservative Party is facing a crisis, and only Johnson can save the Conservative Party."
However, in July this year, he resigned from the government because of his loss of confidence in Johnson, which the outside world said triggered a "resignation wave" of government officials related to Johnson's resignation.
The day after learning that Johnson announced his resignation, Sunak quickly announced his election decision. Many Johnson supporters criticized him for being too obvious and being a typical "political infidelity." Against the background of
, it is difficult for Johnson's party supporters to stand on Sunak's side.
·Sunak (right) and Johnson.
In addition, Kong Yuan believes that Sunak’s primary task after taking office is to stabilize the economy, but the implementation of many policies will be fiercely opposed by dissidents within the party.
For example, the UK's economic inflation is relatively high and the supply chain is tight. One of the main reasons behind it is the lack of labor. Although Sunak supports Brexit, he also realizes the positive effect of the introduction of European immigration on alleviating labor tensions. But populist forces within the British Conservative Party will definitely not agree to relax immigration policies.
In addition, Sunak will also encounter constraints when dealing with EU . "To ease the economy now, we must maintain good communication and exchanges with Europe. But there are currently a considerable number of 'European skeptics' within the Conservative Party, which will inevitably block relevant policies." Kong Yuan said.
Although the prospect is not optimistic, Sunak has become an option that the British have no choice.
The Guardian said that Sunak had been criticized for being "too cautious" in his previous campaign. At this time, after experiencing the "crazy" stimulus policy of Tras, this prudence has become an "excellent quality", and the UK urgently needs a financial "safe hand".
Goodwin, chief economist at the Oxford Economics Institute, said that from the perspective of market impact, the new prime minister is unlikely to risk angering the market again, such as seeking tax cuts or increasing public spending, but will continue to implement the fiscal austerity policy proposed by the current Chancellor of the Chancellor.
Winter is approaching. In the face of a series of difficult problems such as high inflation and energy crisis , Sunak got a "epic" difficult script.
column editor: Qin Hong Text editor: Lu Xiaochuan Title image source: Xinhua News Agency Photo editor: Su Wei
Source: Author: Global People
