Meet our new Prime Minister: Who is Rishi Sunak and what are his policies?
25 October 2022, 13:08 | Updated: 25 October 2022, 13:16
Rishi Sunak has become the new Prime Minister after a rapid Conservative leadership contest.
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Here's everything you need to know about the UK's new leader, including his background, family and political policies.
Personal life
Childhood
Mr Sunak, 42, was born in Southampton on May 12 1980 as the eldest of three siblings.
Born to Hindu parents of Punjabi descent, Rishi's father is Yashvir and his mother is Usha.
Yashvir was born and raised in Kenya and worked as a general practitioner in the NHS, while his mum was born in Tanzania and worked as a pharmacist, running a local pharmacy.
James O'Brien's immediate reaction to Rishi Sunak's first speech as PM
Schooling and career before politics
Mr Sunak studied at the prestigious Winchester College and then Oxford where he read Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.
He then took his education a step further and went to Californian to earn an MBA as a Fulbright Scholar. He did this at Ivy League college, Stanford University.
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Following his education, Rishi worked at investment bank Goldman Sachs before moving into hedge fund management and becoming partner in The Children's Investment Fund Management.
When he was 29, he also helped start a private investment firm called Theleme Partners and has worked with his father-in-law, and billionaire N.R Narayana Murthy, as a director of Catamaran Ventures.
Family
Rishi married his wife, Akshata Murthy, in 2009 where they had a two-day wedding ceremony in Bangalore. She runs her own fashion label, Akshata Designs, and is also a director of venture capital firm founded by her dad.
Akshata is the daughter of billionaire N.R. Narayana Murty, a co-founder of IT company Infosys.
Together the couple have two daughters, Krishna and Anoushka.
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Mr Sunak has a portfolio of impressive houses including his large home in Kensington.
During family breaks, it is thought Rishi and his family retreat to their manor house in North Yorkshire. They also own a property in Santa Monica, California, and a flat in central London.
Political career
Mr Sunak has been the MP for Richmond, Yorkshire, since 2015.
He has served in roles including Chief Secretary to the Treasury and the Chancellor of Exchequer while Boris Johnson was PM.
As the Chancellor during the coronavirus pandemic, some of his most recognised work is the furlough scheme and the Eat Out To Help Out programme.
What are Rishi Sunak's political policies?
The budget
Mr Sunak's commitment to balancing the books is well known and is what saw him increase the tax burden to its highest level for 70 years as Chancellor despite his personal preference for lower taxes.
He is therefore unlikely to deviate from the tax U-turns set out by Jeremy Hunt on October 17, especially as he had already committed to some policies such as increasing corporation tax to 25 per cent.
He is also unlikely to risk doing anything that might spook the markets again, after Mr Hunt's plans somewhat restored economic confidence in the government.
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On spending, Mr Sunak's instincts are likely to align with the spending cuts already trailed by Mr Hunt.
He was already unenthusiastic about large-scale spending commitments, saying in his first leadership bid that the Government needed to "return to traditional Conservative economic values" rather than "fairytales".
The straitened situation the Government finds itself in thanks to soaring inflation and rising interest rates will only reinforce those instincts.
This could put paid to some of the larger spending promises in the 2019 manifesto, as well as Liz Truss's pledge to increase defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP, which he previously described as "arbitrary".
Rishi Sunak pays tribute to Liz Truss
Health and social care
Mr Sunak's main health policy during the last leadership election was bringing in a £10 penalty for missing appointments as part of efforts to tackle the NHS backlog.
He also promised a "backlogs taskforce" to co-ordinate that effort and an expansion of the number of overseas doctors and nurses brought in to work in the NHS.
It remains unclear whether he will seek to reintroduce the increase in national insurance that he brought in as Chancellor but which was subsequently scrapped by Ms Truss.
His book-balancing instincts may push him towards doing so, but it would be the third change to that tax in a year and Mr Hunt said on October 17 that it would remain scrapped.
Immigration
Mr Sunak's immigration policies during the last leadership election focused entirely on curbing Channel crossings and toughening up asylum rules.
This included pushing ahead with the Government's plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, tightening the definition of who can claim asylum, and increasing resources for dealing with the backlog of asylum applicants.
In contrast, he said little about what he would do regarding work visas as the UK continues to face a labour shortage.
But the former Chancellor did say he wants to be "pragmatic" and ensure immigration policy supports economic growth, which suggests a more liberal approach to work visas than that favoured by the likes of former home secretary Suella Braverman.
Rishi Sunak: 'Difficult decisions to come'
Housing
During the last leadership election, Mr Sunak said he was committed to protecting the green belt and would stop local authorities attempting to release protected land for development.
This is likely to mean the end of the Government's 2019 manifesto commitment to build 300,000 homes a year and a move away from "top-down targets".
Climate change and the environment
Mr Sunak has said he remains committed to the UK's target of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
But his plans are more in line with those of Ms Truss than Boris Johnson, as he backs offshore wind, rooftop solar, and nuclear power, but appears less keen on solar farms and onshore wind.
During the last leadership election, he said he wanted to see the UK become energy-independent by 2045, but also said he would keep the ban on building new onshore wind farms and vowed to prevent farmland being covered in solar panels.
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He also backed lifting the moratorium on fracking, providing it has local support - a policy that Ms Truss supported. But fracking has proved a contentious issue for Tory MPs and could therefore be a lower priority for Mr Sunak.
As Chancellor, Mr Sunak cut VAT on home insulation measures and, during the summer leadership campaign, he said he would "embark on a programme of massive energy efficiency upgrades in people's homes".
This would be a point of difference between Mr Sunak and Ms Truss, who largely avoided discussing insulation during her tenure. But it will also cost money, leaving further difficult choices to be made in Mr Sunak's first budget.
Foreign policy
Mr Sunak backed Brexit from the beginning and has previously expressed his support for the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill which would unilaterally rip up the agreement on Ireland.
In this, he is similar to Ms Truss. But his predecessor also oversaw a relative thawing of relations with the EU and Ireland which he may wish to continue.
He is also unlikely to deviate significantly from Ms Truss's line on China, which he described as "the largest threat to Britain and the world's security and prosperity this century".
