Rishi Sunak's meteoric rise and burden to make Britain 'Great' again | VIEWS

Indian-origin MP Rishi Sunak has emerged as the top preference of Tory MPs for the UK PM post. The overwhelming support of the Tory MPs raises the question: what makes Rishi Sunak special for them? 

Rishi Sunak, the British-Indian politician, has topped the leadership contest of the Conservative Party of Britain-- Tory Party-- for the post of prime minister. Throughout five rounds of candidate elimination process, Sunak has kept garnering the highest support. Now, he has entered the next stage of the selection process where 160,000 Tory Party members will decide his fate. Sunak's opponent is his former colleague Liz Truss who also served as foreign minister in the Boris Johnson government.

There is no doubt that Rishi Sunak has emerged as the top preference of Tory MPs, and the table below explains the same. But, his chance of winning the final contest would depend on his ability to overcome the five obstacles he has been facing. However, the overwhelming support of the Tory MPs raises a question: what makes Rishi Sunak special for them, or what do they expect from him? I provide an answer to this question.

A large section of Tory voters thinks that the United Kingdom, which used to be called as ‘The Great Britain’, has been diminishing at the world stage. This has been seen due to declining economic opportunities, losing of international platforms by virtue of the membership of European Union, threat to the national unity because of allegation of discrimination and white privilege, continuous cultivation of a moral guilt for colonisation, and dwindling of traditional values. It appears that overwhelming number of Tory MPs think that Rishi Sunak would be the best suited person for this job, i.e Making Britain ‘Great’ Again. This could be due to following reasons:

Bringing Economic Growth to the Front Seat

Britain, just like other countries, has been witnessing slow economic growth, reducing economic opportunities. The cost of living has also been rising. The outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic accelerated this, but the Russia-Ukraine war has accentuated it. The country has also been facing a serious energy crisis. Therefore, in such circumstances, an economist at the helm of affairs of premiership would be a prudent decision, and Sunak has been highly successful in this area. He has been a successful banker prior to joining politics, and therefore the Tory MPs think that he could solve the economic problems.

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