(Washington Insider Magazine)-In the wake of two back-to-back prime minister resignations within a 3-month period, Rishi Sunak has officially become the United Kingdom’s third prime minister in 2022. Will the third time be the charm for the bedraggled nation?
The musical chairs game began in July when former Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned his post amid scandal and blame from within his own Conservative Party.
Two months later, Liz Truss, also of the Conservative Party, replaced Boris Johnson when Queen Elizabeth II, in her final public appearance before her death two days later, officially installed Truss as the UK’s latest prime minister.
No one could have predicted that Liz Truss would make history for serving the shortest amount of time – 44 days – as a UK prime minister. She resigned from her post amid a severe backlash for implementing a disastrous economic policy that quickly caused the UK economy to tank.
On October 25th, five days after Truss’ resignation, Rishi Sunak earned the most nominations from the UK’s Conservative Party and landed the Prime Minister seat, resolute to fix all the political and economic damage caused by his two predecessors.
Rishi Sunak is not a newcomer to the UK government. For two and a half years he served as Boris Johnson’s chief finance minister before resigning and taking part in attacking Johnson’s failings as Prime Minister. Unable to win enough nominations over Liz Truss in a fast-track race to replace Johnson’s premiership, Sunak took a temporary backseat in the UK Parliament.
However, it wasn’t long – 44 days to be exact – for Sunak to take another run at the open premiership and triumphantly win it this time.
Unlike Liz Truss’ unfortunate history-making, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has entered the history books for three distinctive honors. At age 42, he is the youngest to serve as prime minister in UK history. Being of Indian descent, he is also the first person of color and the first Hindu to serve as UK Prime Minister.
Based on his previous experience as a Goldman Sachs banker and the UK’s Chief Financial Minister, Sunak is confident in his plans to quickly correct the UK’s economic damage levied by his predecessor’s policies.
However, there are still two more months to go in 2022. If the past few months of UK chaos have demonstrated anything, it’s that nothing is certain and everything can change in a heartbeat.
