Rishi Sunak

Rishi Sunak

Rishi Sunak is a British politician who has been Chancellor of the Exchequer since February 2020. He was previously Chief Secretary to the Treasury from July 2019 to February 2020, deputising for Chancellor Sajid Javid at HM Treasury. He has been Member of Parliament for Richmond since the 2015 general election.

About Rishi Sunak in brief

Summary Rishi SunakRishi Sunak is a British politician who has been Chancellor of the Exchequer since February 2020. He was previously Chief Secretary to the Treasury from July 2019 to February 2020, deputising for Chancellor Sajid Javid at HM Treasury. He has been Member of Parliament for Richmond since the 2015 general election. Sunak was born in Southampton, Hampshire, to Punjabi Hindu parents who had emigrated from East Africa. He studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Lincoln College, Oxford, graduating with a First in 2001. In 2006, he obtained an MBA from Stanford University, where he was a Fulbright scholar. He worked as an analyst for investment bank Goldman Sachs between 2001 and 2004. He then worked for hedge fund management firm The Children’s Investment Fund Management, becoming a partner in September 2006. He left in November 2009 to join former colleagues at new hedge fund firm Theleme Partners, which launched in October 2010 with an initial USD 700 million. In the same year, he was head of the Black and Minority Ethnic Research Unit of centre-right think tank Policy Exchange, for which he co-wrote a report on BME communities in the UK.

He supported the UK leaving the European Union in the June 2016 membership referendum. He voted for Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement and voted against a withdrawal agreement on any withdrawal agreement. In June 2019, Sunak supported Boris Johnson in the Conservative Party leadership election and co-authored an article with fellow MPs Robert Jenrick and Oliver Dowden to advocate for Johnson to lead the party. In July 2019, he was re-elected as an MP for Richmond with an increased majority of 23,108. In January 2020, he replaced former Home Secretary Amber Rudd as the fastest rising minister to a Great Office of State since the Second World War. His appointment coincided with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom; he has been leading the Treasury’s response to the ongoing crisis since his appointment.