It was a day of many firsts. In the 75th year of Indian Independence, Rishi Sunak became the first Asian-origin person to take over as Britain’s prime minister. At 42, he was also the youngest to take office in the last 200 years.
Sunak knows, though, he doesn’t have the luxury to contemplate that he’s making history. On the contrary, he has to rescue the economy which was already in bad shape and was made infinitely worse by ex-prime minister Liz Truss’s efforts to introduce wrenching overnight changes. The enormity of the challenges was reflected in his unsmiling face during his first speech as prime minister Tuesday.
Standing at the Downing Street lectern, he promised Britons: “I will work day-in and day-out to deliver for you. Trust is earned and I will earn yours.” Soon afterwards, it appeared the markets certainly trusted him: the gilt market moved back to its previous levels before it was blown out of the water by Truss’s debt-ballooning mini-budget that cut taxes for the rich. This was yet one more sign ideology cannot triumph over reality and the state of the world and that Britain’s economy did not allow for extreme right-wing experiments.
Sunak outlined some of the myriad hurdles facing the economy, including the aftermath of Covid and the Russia-Ukraine war which has led to soaring energy prices. Truss tried to soften the energy price blow by giving huge householder subsidies that weighed down government finances. Jeremy Hunt, a centrist who Truss appointed chancellor of the exchequer to calm the market panic after her disastrous mini-budget, quickly decreed the subsidies would last only till April and not indefinitely as promised.
Whether Sunak can control his party which has moved far to the right in the wake of Brexit remains to be seen. Many party centrists have left the party or were relegated to the backbenches following Brexit.
Events of the last few weeks, also, have demonstrated at a different level just how far Britain has come. Yes, there are Indians and other Asians in top global corporate positions. But there’s a special significance in seeing a non-white British prime minister. After all, this was the country that ruled half the world from most of India to large chunks of Africa.
“Sunak coming to power in Britain seems more poignant, given the obvious symbolism it carries. For the better part of two centuries, Britain lorded over the Indian subcontinent and siphoned away much of its wealth,” commented the Washington Post.
Still very racist
But simultaneously, Sunak’s win highlighted that many Britons, especially the 160,000 older, overwhelmingly white rank-and-file Conservative members, are still very racist and unwilling to accept an Asian at the top. Since MPs selected Sunak, the grassroots who were denied a vote, have been threatening to quit in droves. One commentator said there were white leadership hopefuls who could still aspire to victory because the Conservative members would almost certainly back them over the brown man.
But one group certainly impacted by Sunak’s meteoric rise will be British Asians who now have a new role model. Says writer Sathnam Sanghera: “The difference it will make in terms of the aspirations of young brown British people is incalculable. The most successful Asian I knew as a kid was a branch manager at a local bank, and so for many years the only career I aspired to was his. Seeing someone like myself (albeit much shorter) in the highest possible office would have supercharged my aspirations.”
On a wider level, Britons are still recovering from the political chaos since the 2019 election. Sunak is now the third prime minister in two months and the fifth in six years. The tabloid Daily Star had mocked Truss who left office Tuesday after 49 days by comparing her shelf-life to a lettuce. Tuesday’s Daily Star had Sunak as October’s pin-up boy with the question: “Daily Star’s Tory PM 2022 calendar has Rishi as Mr October — but can he last a month?” It was a brutal question but illustrative of the British political situation.
After all the party scandals and upheavals, the Conservatives are still expecting to be defeated at the next election. One grim remark in The Spectator said, “Many of Sunak’s colleagues seem relieved this afternoon that they’ve picked a captain who’ll take the ship down in a dignified fashion.” It was a comment on just how Britain’s politics have become the theatre of the absurd in recent years.