| Name | Rishi Sunak |
| Date of Birth | 12 May 1980 |
| Profession | Politician |
| Net Worth | $4.3 Billion |
| Age | 43 years old |
| Height | 1.7 M |
| Weight | 70 kg |
| Birthplace | Southhampton, Hampshire |
| Nationality | English |
Who Is Rishi Sunak?
Rishi Sunak was born on May 12, 1980. He is a British politician. In 2022, he became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Leader of the Conservative Party. He is the first Prime Minister of British Asian descent. Before this, he had two important jobs in the government led by Boris Johnson. His last position was being in charge of the country’s money, which is called the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He did this from 2020 to 2022. Since the year 2015, he has been a Member of Parliament (MP) representing an area called Richmond (Yorks).
Early Life
Sunak was born on May 12, 1980, at Southampton General Hospital in Southampton, Hampshire. His parents, Yashvir and Usha Sunak were born in East Africa and follow the Hindu religion. They have roots in the Indian Punjabi community. Sunak went to Stroud School, a school in Romsey. Later, he studied at Winchester College as a day student and even became the head boy there. During his summer breaks, he worked as a waiter in a curry restaurant in Southampton. He went on to study philosophy, politics, and economics at Lincoln College, Oxford. He finished his studies with the highest grade, which is called a “first,” in 2001. While at university, he did an internship at the headquarters of the Conservative Party and also joined the party. In 2006, Sunak went to Stanford University for more studies. He earned a degree called a Master of Business Administration. He got this degree as a Fulbright Scholar, which is a special recognition for talented students. It was during his time at Stanford that he met his future wife, Akshata Murty. She is the daughter of an Indian billionaire named N. R. Narayana Murthy, who is associated with Infosys, a big company.
Sunak’s grandfather on his dad’s side came from a place called Gujranwala, which is now in Pakistan. His grandpa on his mom’s side was from Ludhiana, which is now in India. Both of these cities used to be in Punjab, a part of British India. His grandparents moved to East Africa first and then to the United Kingdom in the 1960s. His dad, Yashvir Sunak, was born and grew up in Kenya (which is what it’s called now). He works as a doctor in the National Health Service. His mom, Usha Sunak, was born in a place called Tanganyika, which later became part of Tanzania. She used to be a pharmacist and owned a pharmacy in Southampton from 1995 to 2014. She also studied at Aston University. Sunak has two siblings. He’s the oldest. His brother Sanjay, born in 1982, is a psychologist. His sister Raakhi Williams, born in 1985, works in New York. She’s in charge of planning and strategy at a group that helps with education during emergencies, which is part of the United Nations.
Personal Life
In August 2009, Sunak got married to Akshata Murty. She is the daughter of N. R. Narayana Murthy and Sudha Murty. Sunak’s father-in-law is the person who started Infosys, a big technology company. Akshata Murty also has a share in this company. Sunak and Murty met while they were studying at Stanford University in the United States. They have two daughters, named Krishna (born in 2011) and Anoushka (born in 2013). They have a few houses. One is called Kirby Sigston Manor, and it’s in a place called Kirby Sigston in North Yorkshire. They also have a house in Earl’s Court in central London, a flat on Old Brompton Road in South Kensington, and a penthouse apartment on Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica, California. In April 2022, there was news that Sunak and Murty had left the flat above 10 Downing Street (where the Prime Minister lives) and moved to a newly fixed-up home in West London. They did this for personal reasons. But in October 2022, they moved back to 10 Downing Street, this time as the Prime Minister. This was a change from the trend that had been happening since 1997 when Prime Ministers lived in the flat above 11 Downing Street.
Sunak doesn’t drink alcohol. He’s mentioned that he used to drink a lot of Coca-Cola and now he has seven fillings in his teeth because of drinking it too much when he was younger. Before, he was a leader at a school called East London Science School. He likes cricket and horse racing, and he has a Labrador named Nova. He also enjoyed working out on a Peloton bike and liked a fitness instructor named Cody Rigsby. Sunak is a big fan of a football team called Southampton F.C. He even said that if he could choose any job, he’d love to run the Southampton Football Club. He follows the Hindu religion and considers himself both British and Indian. He took an oath as a Member of Parliament while holding a book called Bhagavad Gita. During a special event, he read a part of a book in the Bible. After the tragic event involving George Floyd, he spoke about facing racism in his own life. Sunak is also close friends with James Forsyth, who used to work for a magazine called The Spectator. They’ve known each other since school, and Sunak was even the best man at Forsyth’s wedding. They’re also godparents to each other’s children. Sunak appointed Forsyth to a political role in December 2022.
Business and Political Career
Between 2001 and 2004, Sunak had a job at a bank called Goldman Sachs, where he worked as an analyst. After that, he worked at a company called The Children’s Investment Fund Management, which is a place that takes care of money for people. He became a partner there in September 2006. Later, in November 2009, he left this job. Then, he went to California and joined a new company called Theleme Partners. This company started in October 2010 and had $700 million to manage. Sunak’s boss at both of these money-handling places was Patrick Degorce. Sunak also had a role at a company called Catamaran Ventures. This company is owned by his father-in-law, N. R. Narayana Murthy, who is a big businessman in India. Sunak was a director at this company between 2013 and 2015.
Sunak became a member of the Conservative Party in the year 2010. He was chosen to be the Conservative candidate for Richmond (Yorks) in October 2014. He won over Wendy Morton in this selection process. The seat he was aiming for was held by William Hague before. Hague used to lead the Conservative Party and had important jobs in the government under David Cameron. This seat is one of the safest for the Conservative Party in the whole United Kingdom, and they’ve been winning it for more than a hundred years. During that same year, Sunak was in charge of a group that studied the thoughts and needs of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities. This group was part of a think tank called Policy Exchange, which leans towards the political right. He co-wrote a report about these communities in the UK. He was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for his area in the big election of 2015. He won with a lot of votes, getting a big lead of 19,550 votes (36.2%).
Sunak was a strong supporter of the campaign for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. This happened in a vote in June 2016. In that same year, he wrote a report for a think tank called the Centre for Policy Studies, where he supported the idea of creating free ports after the UK left the European Union. The next year, he wrote another report suggesting the creation of a special market for smaller businesses to sell bonds. After David Cameron stepped down as the leader of the Conservative Party, Sunak supported Michael Gove to take his place in the leadership election of 2016. However, when Gove was out of the race, Sunak endorsed Theresa May, who eventually became the new leader. He got re-elected in the 2017 general election with even more votes, increasing his lead to 23,108 votes (40.5%). In 2017, Sunak talked about how important and delicate the undersea structures in Britain are. He was once again re-elected in the 2019 general election, this time with an even larger lead of 27,210 votes (47.2%).
During the time when Theresa May was the Prime Minister, Sunak got a job as a junior minister. His role was called Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Government. He got this position in a reshuffle of the government’s team in 2018. Sunak supported Theresa May’s plans for the UK to leave the European Union. He voted in favor of her Brexit withdrawal agreement on three different occasions. He also voted against the idea of having a second referendum about this withdrawal agreement. Unfortunately, the agreement was rejected by the Parliament three times. Because of this, Theresa May decided to step down as the Prime Minister in May 2019. In the same year, when the Conservative Party was choosing a new leader, Sunak supported Boris Johnson. He even co-wrote an article with other Members of Parliament (MPs) named Robert Jenrick and Oliver Dowden. This article was meant to support Boris Johnson during the campaign for the leadership election that happened in June.
After Boris Johnson became the leader of the Conservative Party and the Prime Minister, he chose Sunak to be the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. In this role, Sunak worked under another important person named Chancellor Sajid Javid. The day after he got this job, Sunak became a member of something called the Privy Council. This is a special group of important people who advise the monarch. In the big election of 2019, Sunak represented the Conservative Party in debates on TV. These debates were shown on the BBC and ITV channels, and there were seven parties taking part.
On March 17, 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was affecting many people and businesses, Sunak became important in the government’s actions. He introduced a plan to help businesses that were struggling because of the pandemic. This plan gave £330 billion to businesses that needed emergency support. He also started something called a “furlough scheme” for employees. This was the first time the British government did something like this. The furlough scheme meant that the government would help pay the wages of workers. It started on March 20, 2020, and gave money to employers to pay 80% of their workers’ wages, up to £2,500 per person each month. This plan was expected to cost around £14 billion every month. The furlough scheme was supposed to last for three months, starting from March 1. But because of the lockdown that was happening across the country, Sunak extended the scheme until the end of June 2020. Later, he extended it again until the end of October 2020. This was done to prevent many people from losing their jobs and to avoid big economic problems.
In July 2020, Sunak announced more plans to spend money to help the economy. This included things like a “stamp duty holiday” and reducing taxes for the hospitality industry. He also introduced the “Eat Out to Help Out” scheme, which aimed to support restaurants and cafes. The government paid part of the bill for people eating out at these places, up to £10 per person. This scheme was available from August 3 to August 31, on Mondays to Wednesdays each week. It helped support the hospitality industry and created jobs. Some people thought this scheme was good for the hospitality industry, while others disagreed. A study in 2020 found that the scheme might have caused more people to get COVID-19, but the government didn’t agree with this idea.
On September 24, 2020, Sunak introduced something called the Winter Economy Plan. He did this to announce new actions meant to help the economy recover from the problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal was to support the economy, jobs, and businesses that could still do well. These measures were important after the pandemic’s impact. When a second lockdown happened in England on October 31, 2020, the plan was extended until December 2, 2020. Then, on November 5, it was extended even more, this time until March 31, 2021. Later, on December 17, the plan was extended again, now until April 30, 2021. In the 2021 budget, which was announced on March 3, 2021, Sunak said that the plan would be extended once more, this time until September 30, 2021.
In October 2021, Sunak shared his third and final budget statement. It promised a lot of spending on things related to science and education. The budget also increased support for people with jobs through something called the Universal Credit system. This meant giving more money to those who were working, and reducing the amount of tax taken from their pay. There was also a large investment announced for something called the Levelling Up White Paper, which is a plan to improve different parts of the country. However, some of the things Sunak was going to announce were talked about before the budget day, which made some people in the House of Commons upset. Sunak explained that the budget was about getting ready for a new kind of economy. In April 2022, there was a situation called the Partygate scandal. Sunak was involved, and he received a fine from the police because he had broken COVID-19 rules. He had attended a birthday party for Johnson on June 19, 2020. The police gave him a fine, and he apologized for the mistake and for any hurt he caused. He respected the decision of the police.
When the cost of living started to become a bigger problem in the UK, the government, including Sunak, decided to take stronger actions in May 2022. They imposed a special tax of £5 billion on energy companies. This money would be used to create a £15 billion support plan for the public. This plan included different things to help people. Every household was going to get a £400 discount on their energy bills. This was added to another refund of £150 for their council tax that the government had already planned. Around 8 million households with the lowest incomes were going to receive an extra payment of £650. People who are pensioners or have disabilities would get more money too. They would receive extra on top of the £550 that each household was already getting, and the £650 for those with low incomes.
Sunak talked about his plans in a statement on March 23, 2022. He did a few things to help people. He lowered the tax on fuel, removed a tax called VAT on things like solar panels and insulation, and decreased the amount of money small businesses had to pay as national insurance. Even though he was going to increase the national insurance next month, he promised to make it the same as the basic personal income allowance by July. He also said that there would be a decrease in the amount of income tax people had to pay in 2024. Sunak also set aside some money to help those who were struggling with the higher cost of living.
Sunak was in charge of a G7 summit in London in June 2021. During this summit, a new agreement was made about taxes. This agreement aimed to create a rule that would apply to big companies and online technology companies, making sure they pay a minimum amount of tax worldwide. In October 2021, a group called the OECD also agreed to be a part of this new tax plan. Around the same time in October, Sunak went to an event called COP26 in Glasgow. During a speech he gave on November 3, he mentioned that he felt hopeful even though there were big challenges. He said that by working together with finance ministers, businesses, and investors, COP26 could start achieving the goals set out in the Paris Agreement.
In November 2020, news came out from The Guardian that Sunak didn’t tell the government about a lot of his family’s money and interests. This included not saying that they owned a big part of a company called Infosys from India. The company was worth a lot of money, about £1.7 billion. A person named Alistair Graham, who used to lead a group that looks at how politicians follow rules, said that Sunak should have told everyone about his family’s money and interests because he’s in charge of making important decisions about the government’s money and business plans. He thought Sunak didn’t do enough to tell people about these things.
Sunak was looked into by someone who checks if politicians are doing the right things, and they decided that he didn’t break any rules. In early 2022, newspapers talked about Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty. They said she had a special status that meant she didn’t have to pay taxes on money she earned from other countries while living in the UK. This special status cost around £30,000, and it helped her avoid paying about £20 million in taxes in the UK. After this became a big issue in the news, Murty said she would pay taxes in the UK on all her money, even from other countries. She didn’t want this problem to cause trouble for her husband, Sunak. The government started looking into who told the media about her tax status. During this time, it was also found out that Sunak had a special status in the United States called a green card, which let him live there. He got this card in the 2000s and still had it until 2021, even when he became the chancellor. This status made him have to file taxes in the US every year. After looking into both his wife’s tax status and his US status, they decided he didn’t break any of the rules for politicians.
Prelude to Premiership
On July 5, 2022, both Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid resigned from their positions almost at the same time. This happened because there was a big problem with someone named Chris Pincher. He was accused of doing something wrong to other people. It was found out that the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, knew about it but still gave Pincher an important job. Sunak was the second out of 61 members of the Conservative Party to leave their jobs during this difficult time for the government. In the letter where he said he was resigning, Sunak mentioned that the government should be run properly and seriously. He believes these important standards should be followed. He also said that he realized his way of doing things and the government’s way were too different. He felt sad to leave the government, but he decided it was best to do so because of these differences.
Nadhim Zahawi took over Sunak’s role as the chancellor. It was after Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid resigned. After these resignations, many other junior ministers and one person who helps members of the government (called a Parliamentary Private Secretary) also resigned. They left their jobs. It was because they believed that the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, was not being honest and wasn’t acting with integrity. In the next 24 hours after Sunak and Javid resigned, a total of 36 Members of Parliament (MPs) also left their positions in the government. This was the biggest number of resignations in such a short time since a big meeting called the British Empire Economic Conference in 1932. It was also the highest number of resignations ever recorded. After a total of 62 people resigned from their roles, Boris Johnson said on July 7 that he was planning to step down as the leader of the Conservative Party and the Prime Minister. He said he would remain as Prime Minister until a new leader was chosen.
On July 8, 2022, Sunak said that he wanted to become the leader of the Conservative Party and the Prime Minister, taking over from Boris Johnson. He made this announcement in a video shared on social media. He mentioned that his main goals were to rebuild trust, strengthen the economy, and bring the country together again. He also talked about his values, which he said were patriotism, fairness, and hard work. He promised to be tough about the language used to talk about gender neutrality. During the campaign, Sunak made several promises. He said he would only cut taxes when the cost of living was stable. He also talked about removing a 5% tax on household energy for one year, adding a £10 fine for patients who miss appointments with doctors, limiting the number of refugees, and making the rules for seeking asylum stricter.
On July 20, it was clear that Sunak and Liz Truss were the final two candidates for the leadership. This was after a series of votes by Members of Parliament (MPs). Sunak got more votes than Truss in the final round, with 137 votes to her 113. But when the party members voted, Truss got 57.4% of the votes and became the new leader. After Truss became the leader, Sunak spent his time as a regular Member of Parliament (MP) and not part of the government. Truss resigned on October 20, 2022, which led to another leadership contest. On October 22, it was reported that Sunak had enough support from MPs (100 members of the House of Commons) to be in the contest that was happening on October 24. More than 100 MPs publicly supported him by the afternoon of October 22. On October 23, Sunak officially said that he would be running for the leadership. This happened after Boris Johnson’s time as Prime Minister.
Net Worth
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, is estimated to have a net worth of $4.5 billion, which is equivalent to £3.45 billion. This information comes from different sources online, such as Wikipedia, Forbes, and IMDB, which are popular places for finding information about people’s wealth.
