WHO IS RISHI SUNAK FAVORITE TO SUCCEED

TO BORIS JOHNSON IN THE UNITED KINGDOM ?

Among them: the former Minister of Finance, Rishi Sunak, 42 ​​years old. This son of Indian immigrants who went through Oxford and Stanford is among the favorites alongside former defense minister Penny Mordaunt and current foreign secretary Liz Truss.

Unknown to the general public a few years ago, Rishi Sunak has managed to establish himself as a key figure in the party and is now in the lead.

Before starting his political career, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer had a successful career in finance. Returning to the American bank Goldman Sachs in the early 2000s as an intern, he finally landed a position as a junior analyst in the investment bank.

He then joined The Children's Investment Fund (TCI), one of the most prominent hedge funds in London, before launching a hedge fund, Theleme Fund, in 2010 with former partners at TCI. Rishi Sunak was also the director of Catamaran Ventures, a venture capital fund owned by his father-in-law. The fortune of the former minister would amount, according to the "Sunday Times", to 860 million euros.

Rishi Sunak only started his political career in 2015 when he was elected from North Yorkshire. In 2016, he did not hesitate to support, from the first hour, a Brexit camp still in its infancy. This risky choice attracts him the favor of Boris Johnson, who will bring him into the Treasury as soon as he enters 10 Downing Street in 2019.

Rishi Sunak was for more than two years Chancellor of the Exchequer, that is to say Minister in charge of Finance and Treasury. Appointed in February 2020 at just 39 years old, "Rish", as his friends call him, has established himself over the months as one of the heavyweights of the British government.

His relations with "BoJo" have not always been very cordial. The dissension between the two men reached its climax in the summer of 2021, when Boris Johnson criticized his "lack of political sense".

Rishi Sunak was, along with Sajid Javid (Minister of Health), the first government heavyweight to resign from the government on July 5, citing "fundamentally too different approaches" with Boris Johnson.

The resigning ministers notably criticized “BoJo” for his behavior in the “Party Gate” affair, these parties organized at 10 Downing Street while the British were confined to their homes. On July 8, the day after Boris Johnson's resignation, Rishi Sunak officially declared himself a candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party and therefore for the post of Prime Minister.

Rishi Sunak is married to a wealthy Indian heiress. He met his wife, Akshata Murthy, while studying at Stanford. They married in 2009 in his wife's hometown, Bangalore. Akshata Murthy is the daughter of a very wealthy Indian businessman, Narayana Murthy. Co-founder of Infosys, he is one of the richest men in India. His fortune amounts, according to the magazine “Forbes”, to 3.5 billion euros.

Last April, Rishi Sunak's popularity took a big hit after 'The Independent' revealed his wife's tax status. This indeed benefits from the status of “non domiciled” (“non dom”, in English). This status would have allowed Akshata Murthy to be exempt from tax on his foreign income and thus avoid paying several million pounds of tax. These revelations had shocked the British, in a context of purchasing power crisis linked to galloping inflation.

Rishi Sunak who has just faced Liz Truss in a decisive political duel, will he succeed in prevailing over his rival? In the columns of the Daily Telegraph, which headlined Thursday "Advantage Truss", Rishi Sunak tried to counter the head of diplomacy on the ground of the legacy of Margaret Thatcher.

"My values ​​are Thatcherian, I believe in work, family and integrityé. "I am a Thatcherite, I compete as a Thatcherite, and I will rule as a Thatcherite."