Rishi Sunak, born in Southampton, England to parents of Punjabi Indian descent who had migrated to Britain from East Africa in the 1960s, was announced today as the new Leader of Britain’s Conservative Party. He would become the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on October 24, 2022. His rise to the top political post in the United Kingdom was following a chaotic Conservative Party leadership race, where he prevailed after the withdrawal of former prime minister Boris Johnson. Thus, he replaces Elizabeth Truss, the outgoing prime minister with the shortest reign in British history(44 days), making him the third minister in two months of political distress and economic turmoil in the country which faces the risk of global war as fears grow of an escalation in the wars in Ukraine involving direct NATO involvement on the side of Ukraine against Russia and Russian allied forces.
Rishi Sunak thus becomes the first UK Prime Minister of Asian/Indian/Hindu/Punjabi descent, as well as of African heritage(his father was born and raised in the British Protectorate/Colony of Kenya (which gained its independence as Kenya on 12 December 1963), while his mother was born in Tanganyika (a part of the former German colony of German East Africa until 1916, before it became a British Mandatory Territory, and then a British Trust Territory in 1945 until it gained its dependence on December 09, 1961, and then united with the former British protectorate of Zanzibar on April 24, 1964, to form Tanzania).
The new man at the top of UK politics has promised “stability
and unity.”
Other UK prime ministers of non-English descent are:
|
Name
|
Descent |
|
Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of
Rosebery |
Scottish |
|
Benjamin Disraeli |
Jewish |
|
Bonar Law |
Canadian |
|
David Lloyd George |
Welsh |
|
George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of
Aberdeen |
Scottish |
|
Gordon Brown |
Scottish |
|
Harold Macmillan |
Scottish |
|
Henry Campbell-Bannerman |
Scottish |
|
Callaghan |
Irish |
|
John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute |
Scottish |
|
Ramsay MacDonald |
Scottish |
|
Tony Blair |
Scottish |
Janvier T. Chando, author of
ICONS AND VILLAINS: Recent
Political Assassinations That Transformed Countries, Regions and the World
Ukraine: The Tug-of-war between Russia and the West
