Rishi Sunak has become the UK’s new prime minister after being invited to form a new government by King Charles III at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday.
Mr Sunak took up the reins as leader of the Conservative Party without a vote after rivals Penny Mordaunt and Boris Johnson dropped out of the race for No 10, replacing Liz Truss in the top job.
In a speech outside 10 Downing Street, he warned that the nation is facing a “profound economic crisis” as he pledged to fix the “mistakes” of Ms Truss’s leadership.
The third prime minister in as many months leader braced the nation for “difficult decisions to come”.
Mr Sunak said it was “only right to explain why I’m standing here as your new Prime Minister”, saying: “Right now our country is facing a profound economic crisis.”
He highlighted the lingering aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic and Vladimir Putin’s destabilising war in Ukraine.
Mr Sunak said Ms Truss was “not wrong” to want to drive up growth, describing it as a “noble aim”.
He added: “But some mistakes were made. Not born of ill-will or bad intentions – quite the opposite in fact. But mistakes nonetheless.
“I’ve been elected as leader of my party and your Prime Minister in part to fix them – and that work begins immediately.”
He vowed to place “economic stability and confidence at the heart of this Government’s agenda”, after the financial chaos triggered by Ms Truss.
Allies hope he will stabilise the party following Mr Johnson’s dramatic downfall and his successor’s tumultuous tenure, spanning only six weeks.
Ms Truss stressed the need to be “bold” as she made her final speech as prime minister at the lectern earlier.
She spoke of the need to praise tax cuts and celebrate reversing the national insurance hike imposed by Mr Sunak when he was chancellor.
She warned that Britain continues to “battle through a storm”, but insisted she believes that “brighter days lie ahead”.
Ms Truss said: “From my time as prime minister, I’m more convinced than ever that we need to be bold and confront the challenges we face.
“We simply cannot afford to be a low-growth country where the government takes up an increasing share of our national wealth and where there are huge divides between different parts of our country. We need to take advantage of our Brexit freedoms to do things differently.”
After her speech, she travelled to Buckingham Palace to formally tender her resignation to the king after just 49 days in office, making her the shortest-serving British prime minister in history.
Mr Sunak then travelled to see the king, who asked him to form an administration.
Mr Sunak entered No 10 at lunchtime as the UK’s first Hindu prime minister, the first of Asian heritage, and the youngest for more than 200 years at the age of 42.
The former chancellor will now turn his attention to assembling a team that he will hope can return a measure of stability to both the Conservatives and the country.
He has been urged to avoid Ms Truss’s perceived error of appointing loyalists to key roles, with foreign secretary James Cleverly calling for the overhauled cabinet to feature the best ministers. “We have got to have the first 15 on the pitch. I know that Rishi understands that,” he said on Sky News.
Mr Sunak will look to build a cabinet of “all the talents” that will see the political return of the “adults”, according to reports.
While his team was remaining tight-lipped about the possible make-up of the cabinet, long-time backers such as former justice secretary Dominic Raab, Commons Treasury Committee chair Mel Stride and ex-chief whip Mark Harper were tipped to be in it.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who was brought in to steady Ms Truss’s ailing government and has been working towards a highly anticipated Halloween fiscal statement, is widely expected to keep the keys to No 11 to try to stabilise the jittery markets.
Ms Mordaunt, who bowed out of the race to hand Mr Sunak a spectacular political comeback as she failed to get the 100 nominations from Tory MPs, is expected to get some kind of promotion — with some speculating that she could replace Mr Cleverly as foreign secretary.
Mr Sunak ruled out an early general election demanded by opposition parties as the Tories move on to their third prime minister on the mandate won by Mr Johnson in 2019.
Mr Harper told BBC Two’s Newsnight: “He commands the majority support in the House of Commons and that’s the basis on which he is entitled to be prime minister — and he will govern and deliver the 2019 manifesto.”
He conceded that “of course you have to respond to the challenges you face” when it was put to him that Mr Sunak’s talk of the “profound economic challenge” and Mr Hunt’s warning of “eye-wateringly difficult” decisions on tax and spending signalled a shift away from Mr Johnson’s 2019 promise of an end to austerity.
“You obviously have to evolve, but the basis of our programme are the promises we made in 2019,” Mr Harper said.
He also said Ms Truss’s six-week premiership made Mr Sunak’s job “more difficult”, because of “the way the markets responded”.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting reiterated Labour’s call for a general election, saying “the public are clamouring for a say”.
He said: “The Conservative Party is a sclerotic mess. They are chaotic and who’s to say Rishi Sunak isn’t going to be out in six months’ time because you can hear the knives sharpening in Westminster of the disgruntled Borisites … who still think Rishi knifed Boris Johnson in the back.”
Mr Sunak, whose resignation from Mr Johnson’s government in July precipitated a mass exodus that led to the then-PM’s downfall, on Monday hit the ground running by telling Conservative MPs behind closed doors in the House of Commons they face an “existential moment”.
Three MPs in the room said his message to the party was they must “unite or die”, as they focus on delivering on the public’s priorities during a cost-of-living crisis.
Mr Sunak now has the daunting task of leading the UK through an economic crisis exacerbated by the chaotic legacy of Ms Truss.
A wave of industrial unrest, a buckling health service and the risk of a nuclear escalation by Russian president Vladimir Putin are only some of the challenges he faces.
Mr Sunak’s ascendancy from MP to PM is the fastest in modern political history, having first won the constituency of Richmond in North Yorkshire in 2015.
However, his journey to the top job has not been without its hitches, having been fined alongside Mr Johnson for breaching coronavirus rules and having faced questions over his wife Akshata Murty’s “non-dom” status for tax purposes. ( PA/Irish Times)
Stay ahead with the latest updates! Join The ConclaveNG on WhatsApp and Telegram for real-time news alerts, breaking stories, and exclusive content delivered straight to your phone. Don’t miss a headline — subscribe now!
