Rishi Sunak’s ‘clear plan’ and ‘bold action’ may fail to convince voters – Firstpost

Britain’s Conservatives hoped that Rishi Sunak would stabilise the party and the country when they made him leader after the chaotic tenures of his predecessors. Instead, he led them to the brink of electoral defeat.

The party’s MPs installed the 44-year-old former financier in October 2022 after Liz Truss’s 49-day tenure as prime minister imploded when unsettled markets turned against her plans to cut taxes.

Sunak managed to stabilise the country’s economy to some extent, but he was unable to end the bitter infighting within the Tories or break the opposition Labour Party’s persistent lead in the polls.

Buoyed by rare positive economic news, Sunak called a general election from July 4 to the end of May, even though he does not have to face voters until early 2025.

He hoped the shock announcement would surprise right-wing Reform UK party members and that Labour’s 20 percentage point lead in the polls would shrink over the course of the campaign.

But Sunak’s campaign slid from one disaster to the next.

By far the biggest damage to Sunak was his decision to leave the D-Day commemorations in France early, provoking widespread outrage and alienating the right wing whose votes he desperately needs.

Now, under the leadership of Brexit talisman Nigel Farage, they will likely vote in droves for reform.

He was also forced to apologise after Conservative candidates and the party’s campaign manager were investigated for allegedly placing bets on election day before the election was called.

All this has left Sunak looking increasingly frustrated. While he has abandoned the optimistic rhetoric of the early campaign, he still insists that the election result is not a foregone conclusion.

‘The Handsome Rishi’

Sunak, who is personally wealthy, has struggled to connect with ordinary voters who have been hit hard by the cost of living crisis.

He was publicly ridiculed for claiming that he had a deprived childhood because his family did not have satellite television, and he often appeared clumsy in his dealings with voters.

His current difficulties have nothing to do with his rapid rise to power, which saw him become Britain’s youngest prime minister in modern times at the age of 42, and also the first of South Asian descent.

The devout Hindu was born on May 12, 1980 in Southampton on the south coast of England, the son of a family doctor and a mother who ran a pharmacy.

Sunak’s grandparents were from Punjab in northern India and emigrated from East Africa in the 1960s. They arrived in Britain with “very little”, he said.

Sunak was educated at the exclusive private Winchester College and then at Oxford and Stanford Universities.

During his bid for the Conservative leadership, a video emerged in which 21-year-old Sunak talks about his friends.

“I have friends who are aristocrats, I have friends who are upper class, I have friends who are, you know, working class,” he says, before quickly adding, “Well, not working class.”

After making millions in the financial industry, Sunak won the safe, predominantly white Conservative constituency of Richmond in Yorkshire, northern England, in 2015.

His Instagram-friendly profile earned him the nickname “Dishy Rishi.”

An early supporter of Brexit, he took office as Chancellor of the Exchequer in February 2020 – a baptism of fire when the Covid pandemic broke out.

The detail-oriented policy expert was forced to draft an enormous economic stimulus package at breakneck speed, which he regularly touts as one of his greatest political achievements.

Wealthy woman

The pandemic, however, tarnished his squeaky-clean reputation after he was fined by police for breaking Covid rules by attending a birthday party for then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Downing Street.

Sunak also faced difficult questions about the tax affairs of his wife Akshata Murty, whose father Narayana Murthy is the billionaire co-founder of IT giant Infosys.

In early 2022, newspapers reported that she was non-domiciled, meaning she had not paid UK taxes on her Infosys income.

The news plunged Sunak’s approval ratings and Murty announced she would pay British tax on her worldwide income.

The Sunaks met while studying in California and have two young daughters and a photogenic dog.

He emphasizes that the experiences of his own family and his wife are a “very conservative” story of hard work and ambitious goals.

In July 2022, Sunak resigned as Chancellor of the Exchequer, contributing to Johnson’s resignation, after one scandal too many and public anger over the government’s Covid response.

Many Tories never forgave him and railed against his leadership from the sidelines.

He insists he alone has a “clear plan” backed by “bold action” to change Britain, but voters are likely to limit his term to less than two years.

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