Rishi Sunak

Rishi Sunak (born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party since October 2022. Previously he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer under the Second Johnson ministry from 2020 to July 2022. He gained the appointment after the resignation of Sajid Javid in February 2020. He has been the MP for Richmond in Yorkshire since 2015.

Sunak in 2020

He is married to Akshata Murty, the daughter of the co-founder of Infosys.

Quotes

2019

• You are highly accountable. That's what I like about it. You are responsible for your investments and either they're good or they're bad ... There are nor many other people to blame, there's nowhere to hide.
  • Comments on the BBC's Political Thinking podcast. "The Rishi Sunak One" (11 October 2019). Quoted in "Rishi Sunak: the bit-part hedge fund partner now managing the economy" The Guardian (8 March 2020)

2020

• Now, more than any time in our history, we will be judged by our capacity for compassion.  Our ability to come through this, won’t just be down to what government or businesses do, but by the individual acts of kindness that we show each other. The small business who does everything they can not to lay off their staff.  The student who does a shop for their elderly neighbour.  The retired nurse who volunteers to cover some shifts in their local hospital. When this is over, and it will be over, we want to look back on this moment and remember the many small acts of kindness done by us and to us.  We want to look back on this time and remember how we thought first of others and acted with decency.  We want to look back on this time and remember how, in the face of a generation-defining moment, we undertook a collective national effort - and we stood together.  It’s on all of us.
  • Statement on the Coronavirus as Chancellor (20 March 2020)
  • Instagram post @rishisunakmp (21 March 2020)

2022

• I managed to start changing the funding formulas, to make sure areas like this are getting the funding they deserve because we inherited a bunch of formulas from Labour that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas and that needed to be undone. I started the work of undoing that.
  • Leaked speech delivered in Tunbridge Wells, Kent (29 July 2022)

• There will be integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level of the government I lead and I will work day in and day out to get the job done.
  • "Rishi Sunak promises ‘integrity and professionalism’ as he enters Tory race" The Independent (23 October 2022)
  • Sunak was elected unopposed in the October 2022 Conservative Party leadership election (MP's ballot) on 24 October.

• I’d like to pay tribute to Liz Truss for her dedicated public service to the country.
  She has led with dignity and grace through a time of great change and under exceptionally difficult circumstances, both at home and abroad.
  I am humbled and honoured to have the support of my parliamentary colleagues and to be elected as leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party.
  It is the greatest privilege of my life, to be able to serve the party I love and give back to the country I owe so much to.
  The United Kingdom is a great country, but there is no doubt we face a profound economic challenge.
  We now need stability and unity and I will make it my utmost priority to bring our party and our country together.
  Because that is the only way we will overcome the challenges we face and build a better, more prosperous future for our children and our grandchildren.
  I pledge that I will serve you with integrity and humility. And I will work day in, day out to deliver for the British people.
  • Video : "Rishi Sunak addresses public after confirmation he's next UK prime minister", BBC News (24 October 2022)
  • On becoming Conservative Party leader, the day before becoming Prime Minister.

Quotes about Sunak

Quotes in alphabetical order according to author or source.

• The Conservative party spent 2022 at war with itself and begins 2023 in an uneasy truce. To keep the peace, Rishi Sunak has to avoid two contentious topics: the past and the future. That doesn’t leave much room for manoeuvre.
  • Rafael Behr "Rishi Sunak is stuck peddling fake solutions – he can’t admit his own party is the problem" The Guardian (11 January 2023).

• Rishi Sunak’s £330bn Tuesday bailout was rather better received – the scale of the package suggested there was some form of intelligent life in cabinet – but after two days of going through the fine detail, those MPs who were still coming to the Commons had come to the conclusion there was rather less to the chancellor’s plan than had met the eye.
  • Written by John Crace after Sunak's budget was released. Quoted in "What we wouldn't give for a Gordon Brown or John Major right now" The Guardian (19 March 2020).

• My personal relationship with him is much better [compared with earlier PM, Boris Johnson]. He phoned me the day he became prime minister, gave me his personal number and we said we would work together on things like Ukraine, if there was a terrorist incident, God forbid, or security issues.
  But obviously, we would robustly argue with each other on everything else. So it is a different relationship, and a different relationship across the dispatch box.
• Every time there’s been the threat of a rebellion he’s backed down. The one thing you get if you win the leadership of your party is the right to say ‘I’ve won the leadership and I’m going to do this, and we’re going to do it and this is what I’m saying we’re going to do with the party, and we’re going to do it’. He doesn’t have the ability to do that because he hasn’t got a mandate.
  • Sir Keir Starmer speaking on the Political Party podcast with Matt Forde, as cited in "Sir Keir Starmer: I loathed unprincipled, lying Boris Johnson" The Times (21 February 2023)

• The PM has a 'yes man' in position at the Treasury, who won’t resist pressure to spend more, if the economy starts to buckle under the strain of Brexit.
  • Comment by Samuel Tombs, a consultant economist. Quoted in "New chancellor Rishi Sunak challenged over hedge fund past" The Guardian (14 February 2020).