His Majesty appointed Mr Sunak as premier, the first British Asian to reach the top job in UK politics and the youngest since the Napoleonic Wars more than 200 years ago. Mr Sunak’s political coronation took place as he was the only contender to get the backing of 100 MPs to enter the contest to be Tory leader after Liz Truss resigned after just 44 days in office, becoming the shortest-serving PM ever.
The ex-chancellor headed to Buckingham Palace mid-morning where the king asked him to form a government. With the world watching the maelstrom in British politics which has seen three prime ministers in 50 days, US president Joe Biden hailed Mr Sunak’s appointment as “a ground-breaking milestone” which “matters”.
Mr Sunak, 42, is the first PM that the king appointed, with his late mother Queen Elizabeth having seen 15 premiers during her 70-year reign, although Winston Churchill was already in office when she acceded to the throne in 1952. After the recent chaos at the heart of government and financial turmoil, former Home Office minister Victoria Atkins told Times Radio: “We can be extremely proud of the fact that we have now got a Prime Minister who not only has the character, and the decency, and the brains and the vision to do this job really well, but we should also be quietly proud that he is also the first British Asian Prime Minister that we will be seeing walk into No10 as well.”
This story is from the October 25, 2022 edition of Evening Standard.
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This story is from the October 25, 2022 edition of Evening Standard.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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