LONDON (AP) \u2014\u00a0Rishi Sunak\u00a0became Britain\u2019s third prime minister this year on Tuesday, tasked with taming an economic crisis that has left the country\u2019s finances in a precarious state and millions struggling to pay their food and energy bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunak, who is\u00a0the U.K.\u2019s first leader of color, met King Charles III at Buckingham Palace, where the monarch officially asked\u00a0the new leader of the governing Conservative Party\u00a0to form a government, as is tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunak clinched the leadership position Monday, seen by his party as a safe pair of hands to stabilize an economy sliding toward recession \u2014 and stem its own plunging popularity, after the brief, disastrous term of Liz Truss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her package of unfunded tax cuts spooked financial markets with the prospect of ballooning debt, drove the pound to record lows and forced the Bank of England to intervene \u2014 weakening Britain\u2019s fragile economy and\u00a0obliterating Truss\u2019 authority\u00a0within her party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In one of his first acts, Sunak announced he would retain Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt, appointed by Truss to steady the markets two weeks ago amid the turmoil. His removal would have set off new tremors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunak \u2014 at 42 the youngest British leader in more than 200 years \u2014 acknowledged the scale of his challenge as well as the skepticism of a British public alarmed at the state of the economy and weary of a Conservative Party soap opera that has chewed through two prime ministers in as many months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI fully appreciate how hard things are,\u201d Sunak said outside the prime minister\u2019s 10 Downing Street residence. \u201cAnd I understand, too, that I have work to do to restore trust after all that has happened. All I can say is that I am not daunted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunak immediately set about appointing a Cabinet, aiming to put his stamp on the government while bringing in people from different wings of the Conservative Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He removed about a dozen members of Truss\u2019 government, but kept several senior figures in place besides Hunt, including Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and Defense Secretary Ben Wallace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who resigned last week in a move that helped trigger Truss\u2019 downfall, got her job back. A leading light of the Conservatives\u2019 right wing, Braverman is charged with fulfilling a controversial, stalled plan to\u00a0send some asylum seekers arriving in Britain on a one-way trip to Rwanda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunak also brought back faces from the era of Truss\u2019 predecessor,\u00a0Boris Johnson, including Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab and Cabinet veteran Michael Gove.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunak aims to assemble an experienced Cabinet whose competence can erase memories of the missteps and U-turns of the past months. But the right-of-center party\u2019s divisions over immigration, relations with Europe and other big issues, remain deep. Allies of Truss and the scandal-plagued Johnson who have been sidelined or demoted from government can now nurture grievances from Parliament\u2019s back benches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is not a fresh start. It\u2019s the same Conservative cabinet of chaos,\u201d opposition Labour Party lawmaker Rosena Allin-Khan said on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When he was Treasury chief, Sunak became popular with the public by handing out billions in support to shuttered businesses and laid-off workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But now he will have to oversee tax hikes and public spending cuts as he tries to bring inflation and government debt under control. A wave of strikes over pay that has already seen walkouts by railway staff, telecoms workers, garbage collectors, lawyers and dockworkers is likely to spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Acknowledging \u201cdifficult decisions to come,\u201d Sunak tried to draw a line under the chaos that engulfed Truss and Johnson. He said his government \u201cwill have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opponents already depict Sunak as out of touch with the concerns of ordinary people because of his privileged private school background, previous career as a hedge fund manager and vast wealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Much of Sunak\u2019s fortune comes through his wife Akshata Murty, whose father is the billionaire founder of Indian IT firm Infosys. The couple is worth 730 million pounds ($826 million), according to the Sunday Times Rich List.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In April 2022, it emerged that Murty did not pay U.K. tax on her overseas income. The practice was legal \u2014 and Murty soon agreed to relinquish it \u2014 but it looked bad at a time when millions of Britons were struggling to make ends meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunak\u2019s victory is a remarkable reversal of fortune just weeks after he lost to Truss in a Conservative election to replace Johnson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunak was chosen as Conservative leader on Monday after becoming the only candidate to clear the nomination threshold of 100 lawmakers. Sunak defeated House of Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt \u2014 who keeps that job in his government \u2014 and Johnson, who failed to rally enough support for a comeback bid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next Sunak has to prepare for a budget statement, scheduled to be delivered by Hunt on Oct. 31, that will set out how the government plans to come up with billions of pounds (dollars) to fill a fiscal hole created by soaring inflation and a sluggish economy \u2014 and exacerbated by Truss\u2019 destabilizing plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Truss\u00a0announced her resignation last week\u00a0and departed Tuesday after making a defiant public statement in Downing Street, seven weeks to the day after she was appointed prime minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Truss offered a defense of her low-tax vision, saying she was \u201cmore convinced than ever that we need to be bold and confront the problems we face.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She leaves a Conservative Party trailing the left-of-center Labour Party in opinion polls. Sunak has at most two years to turn its fortunes around. There does not need to be an election until the end of 2024, though public pressure to call an early poll is growing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jill Rutter, of the Institute for Government, said Sunak\u2019s task was to show the Conservatives \u201care capable of governing in a fair way in the national interest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf they continue to look like a party that is incapable of making decisions, incapable of making those decisions stick, then they will probably deserve to be punished by the electorate next time round,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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