Rishi Sunak is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He is one of the wealthiest politicians in Westminster, Britain as well as the first leader of colour. He replaced the former PM Liz Truss who only lasted 44 days in the job before she resigned from the position.
Indian-origin UK politician Rishi Sunak’s campaign to be the Prime Minister of Britain after the resignation of Boris Johnson on July 7, 2022, received an endorsement from the Deputy Prime Minister of Britain Dominic Raab and transport minister Grant Shapps, who decided to ditch his own leadership bid to back Sunak.
Rishi Sunak, the 41-year-old served as the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2020 to 2022, having previously served as the Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2019 to 2020. Rishi Sunak is a member of the Conservative Party who has been a Member of Parliament (MP) for Richmond (Yorks) since 2015.
PM Sunak is one of the heads of the 40 nations that are participating in the G20 Summit 2023 which is being held in India for the first time in history. Rishi Sunak reached New Delhi on September 7, ahead of the summit which will take place on September 9 and 10. At the airport, he was welcomed by the Ministry of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Ashwini Kumar Choubey. His arrival has caused a stir among the netizens who now refer to him as “India’s son-in-law.”
I’ve landed in Delhi ahead of the #G20 summit.
I am meeting world leaders to address some of the challenges that impact every one of us.
Only together can we get the job done. pic.twitter.com/72vE60c7Fg
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak)
September 8, 2023
Let’s take a look at the life of Rishi Sunak.
Contents
Rishi Sunak Biography
| Birth | 12 May 1980 |
| Age | 42 years |
| Parents | Yashvir Sunak (Father) Usha Sunak (Mother) |
| Education | Winchester College Lincoln College, Oxford Stanford University |
| Wife | Akshata Murthy |
| Children | Two |
| Occupation | Politician Businessman Former Investment Analyst |
| Net Worth | £3.1 billion |
Rishi Sunak Biography: Birth, Age, and Parents
Rishi Sunak was born on 12 May 1980 in Southampton, Hampshire, South East England to Indian parents Yashvir and Usha Sunak who were born in Kenya and Tanzania respectively. His father was a general practitioner while his mother was a pharmacist who ran a local pharmacy.
Sunak’s grandparents were born in Punjab Province, British India, and emigrated to the UK in the 1960s from East Africa. Sunak is the eldest of three siblings. His brother Sanjay is a psychologist and his sister Rakhi works as the Head of Humanitarian, Peacebuilding, UN Funds and Programmes at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Rishi Sunak Education
He is an alumnus of Winchester College, Lincoln College, Oxford and Stanford University. During his summer holidays, Sunak waited tables at a curry house in Southampton.
Rishi Sunak’s Business Career
He undertook an internship at Conservative Campaign Headquarters during his time at the university. From 2001 to 2004, he worked as an analyst at Goldman Sachs, an investment bank. He left the job to join The Children’s Investment Fund Management (TCI) and became a partner in September 2006. He joined another hedge fund firm Theleme Partners in 2009. He also served as the director of the investment firm Catamaran Ventures, owned by his father-in-law and businessman N. R. Narayana Murthy.
Rishi Sunak: As a frontrunner for UK Prime Minister
Rishi Sunak, on July 8, 2022, a day after the resignation of former UK PM Boris Johnson, announced that he would stand as a candidate in the Conservative Party Leadership Election to replace Boris Johnson. The conservative politicians who supported Boris Johnson criticized Rishi Sunak as leading the charge in bringing down the Prime Minister.
The domain readyforrishi.com was first registered with GoDaddy on December 23, 2021, while ready4rishi.com was registered on July 6, 2022, two days after he resigned as the Chancellor. The former domain acts as a redirect to the latter.
Rishi Sunak’s Political Career
In 2014, he was chosen as the Conservative candidate for Richmond (Yorks), a seat that had previously been held by William Hague. The seat has been held by the Conservative Party for over 100 years now. That year, he headed the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Research Unit of Policy Exchange and co-wrote a report on BME communities in the United Kingdom.
In the 2015 General Election, he was elected as an MP from Richmond (Yorks). From 2015 to 2017, he served as a member of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee.
He supported the EU referendum in 2016. He also wrote a report for the Centre for Policy Studies supporting the establishment of free ports after Brexit, and the following year wrote a report advocating for the creation of a retail bond market for SMEs.
He was re-elected as MP from the same seat in the 2017 General Election. He served as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary from January 2018 to July 2019. He supported PM Boris Johnson in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election and even co-wrote an article in a British national daily to advocate for Johnson during the campaign in June 2019.
Sunak was re-elected in the 2019 General Election and was appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in July 2019 and served under Chancellor Sajid Javid. He became a member of the Privy Council on 25 July 2019.
After a cabinet reshuffle in February 2020, Sunak was promoted to Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Sunak presented his first budget on 11 March 2020. As the pandemic created a financial impact, Sunak announced the £30 billion of additional spending of which £12 billion was allocated for mitigation of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On 17 March 2020, he announced £330 billion in emergency support for businesses and a salary subsidy scheme for employees. Three days later, he announced the job retention scheme but received severe backlash as an estimated 100,000 people were not eligible for it. The scheme was extended until 30 September 2021.
Sunak unveiled the £30 billion Eat Out to Help Out Scheme to support and create jobs in the hospitality industry. The government-subsidized food and soft drinks at participating cafes, pubs and restaurants at 50%, up to £10 per person. The offer was available from 3 to 31 August 2020 from Monday to Wednesday. While some consider the scheme to be a success as it subsidized £849 million in meals, others disagree. A study at the University of Warwick revealed that the scheme contributed to a rise in COVID-19 infections of between 8% and 17%.
In his March 2021 budget, Sunak announced that the deficit had risen to £355 billion in the FY 2020-2021, the highest in peacetime. He increased the corporation tax from earlier 19 to 25% in 2023, a five-year freeze in the tax-free personal allowance and the higher rate income tax threshold.
At the G7 Summit in June 2021, a tax reform agreement was signed to establish a global minimum tax on multinationals and online technology companies. In October 2021, OECD signed an accord to join the tax reform plan.
In October 2021, he unveiled his third budget which included £5bn for health research and innovation and £3bn for skills education.
Rishi Sunak Wife
Rishi Sunak tied the knot with Akshata Murthy in August 2009. The couple has two daughters. His wife is the daughter of Indian billionaire N.R. Narayana Murthy and serves as the director at Catamaran Ventures. She also runs her own fashion label and is among the wealthiest women in Britain.
Non-domiciled status of Rishi Sunak’s wife and green card
Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murthy has non-domiciled status, which means that she is not required to pay tax on the income that she earned abroad while living in the United Kingdom. Murthy pays around 30,000 pounds to secure the particular status, which further allows her to avoid paying an estimated 20 million pounds in UK taxes.
After the media controversy on the matter which arose during Rishi Sunak’s announcement to run for Prime Minister, Akshata Murthy announced on April 8, 2022, that she will pay UK taxes on her global income. She further added that she does not want it to be an issue or a distraction from her husband’s plans.
Reportedly it was also revealed that Rishi Sunak continued to hold the U.S. Permanent Resident Card he had acquired in the 2000s until 2021, including for 18 months after he was Chancellor, which required filling the U.S. Tax returns.
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Source: vcmp.edu.vn