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LONDON – It has been a difficult year for frontline politicians in Britain. Few have impressed as the country battles an endemic coronavirus outbreak and continues its never-ending Brexit saga.
Except, that is to say for Rishi Sunak.
The well-dressed young finance minister was little known until recently and only entered parliament in 2015. On Wednesday he will once again make headlines with his updated economic forecast for the country hit by the crisis. coronavirus.
Sunak has already pledged more than 200 billion pounds ($ 267.56 billion) to tackle the Covid-19 crisis and is expected to announce additional investments to ease the pressure on the health service and counter soaring unemployment.
But the relatively inexperienced former banker, who has Indian roots, has been put in the spotlight as one of the country’s most powerful politicians.
Now the whispers are getting louder – could Sunak become Britain’s first non-white prime minister? Domestic and foreign commentators have said it could happen.
A recent opinion poll showed Sunak to be the most popular figure among grassroots members of the ruling Conservative Party. The same poll gave Prime Minister Boris Johnson an approval rating of minus 10%.
He has been dubbed “Dishy Rishi” by the tabloids, thanks to his charismatic presentations and sleek social media accounts, where he boasts half a million subscribers.
At 40, he is the second youngest Chancellor of the Exchequer, the outdated official title of what is considered the second most important office in government.
Many viewed Sunak as a firm hand during Britain’s public health crisis, as criticism escalates around Johnson’s pandemic response, with the UK recording the highest Covid-19 deaths in Europe.
The prime minister, who was hospitalized with the coronavirus in April, is currently self-isolating after being exposed to the virus again.
Sunak recognized the role that race plays in his political life.
During his first speech to Parliament representing a seat in Yorkshire, northern England, he joked about voters commenting on his ‘tan’ being better than that of his white predecessor. The newspapers also dubbed him the “Maharajah of the Yorkshire Dales”.
Sunak has often spoken of the debt he owes Britain for welcoming his immigrant grandparents and helping his transition from business to politics, which experts say now includes a chance to access the high level position.
Across the Atlantic, the historic selection of Kamala Harris, who also has an Indian heritage, as vice president-elect in Joe Biden’s new administration, has exerted greater scrutiny on the identity and Sunak’s political ambitions.
The assassination of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May and the protests that followed led Sunak to speak out against his experiences of racism.
“As a British Asian I know of course that racism exists in our country”, said in june, recalling how the incidents of abuse against him and his siblings during his childhood were “particularly upsetting”.
Speculation about Sunak’s possible rise is all the more surprising given that he is a member of the British Conservative Party, which has traditionally supported anti-immigration policies and has struggled to woo voters from ethnic minorities.
Sunak’s rise reflects a “dramatic generational shift” for the Conservative Party, Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, an immigration think tank, told NBC News.
Voters from ethnic minorities overwhelmingly chose the opposition Labor Party in the 2015, 2017 and 2019 elections, according to a poll by Ipsos MORI.
The Conservative Party has sometimes played host to right-wing brands like Enoch Powell, who in 1968 promised that widespread immigration would lead to “rivers of blood” and division.
Johnson himself has been criticized for using an offensive term to describe black children in a 2002 column about a trip by former Prime Minister Tony Blair to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Johnson later apologized, saying his comments were intended “in an entirely satirical manner.”
But Katwala, who also has Indian heritage, warned that if Sunak were to become party leader, it would be “simplistic to think that ethnic minority voters will rush to a politician on the basis of a shared ethnicity.”
Katwala also cautioned against easy comparisons between Britain and America.
“There will be no British Obama because Britain is not America,” he said, adding that Britain had always been “more familiar with ethnic diversity in management positions “.
Sunak, a Hindu, took the parliamentary oath on the sacred scriptures Bhagavad Gita.
Britain colonized India until 1947 and some say Sunak’s rise could allow the former to atone for his imperial past.
“There is no doubt that India will rejoice,” Indian lawmaker Shashi Tharoor told NBC News. “It’s a measure of the maturity of Britain since those (colonial) days.”
Sunak’s success “would do Britain tremendously good in the eyes of the world and in particular the brown and black world,” Tharoor added.
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While race is a burning issue in multicultural Britain, Sunak’s emergence touches another social divide as well: class.
Two-thirds of the Eton-trained Johnson cabinet ministers attended private schools. Sunak, the oldest of three siblings, was a chef at the prestigious Winchester College, an elite boarding school for boys founded in 1382, with the motto “Manners Makyth Man”.
Government figures show that only 7% of children in the UK attend private schools.
Sunak then followed a clear path to Oxford University to study philosophy, politics and economics, a degree popular among those with an eye for a political future.
Then did an MBA at Stanford University in California, as a Fulbright scholar, before working with investment bank Goldman Sachs and hedge funds in London, then seat in Parliament in 2015.
His financial background has propelled Sunak into one of the wealthiest members of Johnson’s cabinet, also in part due to his 2009 marriage to Akshata Murthy – his billionaire father, NR Narayana Murthy, founded Indian tech giant Infosys.
Despite his wealth and privileges, some say Sunak still has the common touch.
The “Star Wars” fan posts photos of his pets, two daughters and financial initiatives on social media, often with pithy slogans, emblazoned with his signature.
Johnson’s government faces yet another potential crisis in the form of the country’s torturous exit from the European Union.
Like almost all of Johnson’s cabinet, Sunak is a strong supporter of Brexit and campaigned to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum.
During the acrimonious campaign of 2016, Sunak kept a relatively low profile, but as a regular press performer, he represented the government’s “starting” position on television and on the airwaves.
But the future is far from easy for Sunak.
It has already taken government borrowing to unprecedented levels, so far spending around £ 391 billion ($ 505 billion) to bail out businesses and pay the wages of workers on leave – more than half of total government spending in 2016-2017.
As a share of the economy, it will be the largest borrowing since World War II, as Sunak prepares to present updated economic forecasts for the country on Wednesday.
Analysts say he has little choice but to raise taxes – a huge rebound for Conservative voters.
And he will have to navigate the financial implications of Brexit when the UK finally stops following shared trade rules with the EU on January 1.
Carl Emmerson, deputy director of the London-based Institute for Fiscal Studies, said Sunak’s leave program, which paid 9 million Britons at 80% of their salary during the pandemic, was “smart policy” and had probably kept unemployment from becoming “astronomical.”
In the midst of England’s second nationwide lockdown, the program was extended until March, meaning “the toughest appeals may yet be ahead,” Emmerson warned. “Chancellors who impose taxes might find it less easy to be popular.”
The Department of Finance declined NBC News’ requests for an interview with Sunak.
Johnson for years has denied having ambitions for No.10 Downing Street, once describing the rumors as ‘shoemakers’ meaning nonsense. He became Prime Minister in July 2019.
If Sunak sees himself as a future prime minister, he opts for the same quiet strategy.
Asked by a radio host in August whether the pandemic had dampened his hopes of becoming prime minister, Sunak chuckled and responded with British reluctance: “Oh my God, I don’t have that desire.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
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