Rishi Sunakਰਿਸ਼ੀ ਸੁਨਕ

Rishi Sunak is a British politician of Punjabi Hindu origin who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 2022 to 2024, the first British Asian and the first Hindu to hold the office. Born in Southampton to parents who had come to Britain from East Africa, with grandparents born in Gujranwala and Ludhiana in Punjab, he rose through Goldman Sachs and hedge funds to Parliament, became Chancellor of the Exchequer during the COVID-19 pandemic, and led the Conservative Party until its defeat in the 2024 general election.

Southampton childhood, Punjab roots

Rishi Sunak was born on 12 May 1980 at Southampton General Hospital in Southampton, Hampshire, the eldest of three children. His family are Punjabi Hindus. His father, Yashvir, was born in Kenya in 1949 and worked as a National Health Service general practitioner. His mother, Usha, was born in Tanganyika, now Tanzania, and was a pharmacist who owned the Sunak Pharmacy in Southampton. His grandparents were born in the Punjab province of British India and migrated to East Africa before Partition. His paternal grandfather, Ramdas Sunak, left Gujranwala in West Punjab for Nairobi in 1935, and his maternal grandfather, Raghubir Berry, was born in Ludhiana in East Punjab. Both of Sunak's parents moved to Britain in 1966 and married in 1977. He attended Stroud School and Winchester College, where he was head boy, studied philosophy, politics and economics at Lincoln College, Oxford, graduating with first-class honours in 2001, and earned an MBA from Stanford University in 2006 as a Fulbright Scholar.

From Goldman Sachs to Parliament

Sunak worked as an analyst at the investment bank Goldman Sachs from 2001 to 2004, then at the hedge fund management firm TCI, and later joined former colleagues at Theleme Partners in California. He was also a director of Catamaran Ventures, the investment firm owned by his father-in-law, Infosys co-founder N. R. Narayana Murthy. He was selected as the Conservative candidate for Richmond in Yorkshire and elected to Parliament in 2015, succeeding William Hague. He supported the campaign to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum. Theresa May appointed him a junior minister for local government in 2018, and Boris Johnson made him Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 2019.

Chancellor through the pandemic

On 13 February 2020, after Sajid Javid resigned, Sunak was promoted to Chancellor of the Exchequer, Britain's finance minister, weeks before COVID-19 reached the country. He became the public face of the government's economic response, introducing the furlough scheme that paid part of the wages of workers sent home, and the Eat Out to Help Out scheme for restaurants. His approval ratings were high in the early pandemic period and fell later as the cost of living rose. He resigned as chancellor in July 2022 during a government crisis, and lost the Conservative leadership election that followed to Liz Truss.

How did Rishi Sunak become prime minister?

He became prime minister when Liz Truss's government collapsed after 49 days. Sunak was elected Conservative leader unopposed in October 2022 and took office on 25 October 2022, aged 42, the youngest prime minister since 1812 and the first of Indian heritage. He set five priorities: halving inflation, growing the economy, reducing debt, cutting NHS waiting lists and stopping small-boat crossings of the English Channel, including through the Rwanda asylum plan. In foreign policy he authorised aid and weapons for Ukraine after Russia's invasion and pledged support for Israel after the October 2023 attacks, later calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. His government could not recover the Conservatives' popularity, and he called a general election for July 2024 earlier than most expected.

Defeat and life after Downing Street

The Conservatives lost the July 2024 election in a landslide to Keir Starmer's Labour Party, ending 14 years of Conservative government. Sunak became Leader of the Opposition and stayed as Conservative leader until November 2024, when Kemi Badenoch succeeded him. He was re-elected to Parliament for the redrawn seat of Richmond and Northallerton in 2024 and remains a backbench MP. In 2025 he also took a part-time senior adviser role with Goldman Sachs, one of his former employers, under restrictions on lobbying.

Sunak's rise carried a particular meaning for Punjabi and Indian families in Britain. His grandparents had left Gujranwala and Ludhiana for East Africa before Partition, his parents had arrived in Britain in 1966 and built working lives in medicine and pharmacy, and within two generations the family produced a prime minister. Supporters presented that story as proof of what immigrant families could achieve in Britain, while his critics judged him, as with any prime minister, on the economy, public services and the record of his government. Both readings start from the same documented facts of his career.