A new face

THE SELECTION – not election – of Rishi Sunak as the UK’s newest prime minister is at once auspicious and inauspicious.

Mr Sunak is the first person of South Asian heritage to lead Britain. That is notable. But it hardly constitutes a sea change.

On the contrary, given Britain’s long history of empire, its subsequent history of migration and diasporic linkage, its almost ten per cent Asian population and its frequent claims to multiculturalism, it is arguably more notable that this has not happened before.

Those expecting the apotheosis of the new prime minister to herald a shift in Britain’s approach to race, history or economic inequality are in for a rude awakening.

The party that on Monday put Mr Sunak in No. 10 Downing Street is the same party that believes institutional racism does not exist, whose membership swear by austerity, whose rank and file frequently attack “woke” liberal people and whose leaders delight in putting refugees on planes to Rwanda.

“We face a profound economic challenge,” Mr Sunak said on Monday in the briefest of remarks after being announced as the leader of this party. He pledged “stability and unity” and to serve “with integrity and humility.”

The new prime minister may well defy expectations. But the reality he and the British people face is a period of economic turbulence and uncertainty, the origins of which extend well beyond the disastrous manoeuvres of his predecessor.

There is growing acknowledgment that much of Britain’s economic malaise has been worsened – if not engendered – by Brexit and by the regional inequalities in place for decades within its class-oriented society.

Effectively, Mr Sunak’s job is to clean up the mess left by David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.

Mere months ago, the party rejected the former chancellor and his sound economic policy in favour of Ms Truss, who was the “continuity candidate” in the summer’s leadership election triggered by Mr Johnson’s ejection from office by his own MPs.

Amazingly, several Conservative MPs seeking a new leader last week openly backed Mr Johnson over Mr Sunak, despite the former’s disgraceful record.

It is all a story of desperation, not triumph.

And though qualified in finance, Mr Sunak brings unique baggage.

The new prime minister, who will have to tackle a cost-of-living crisis, is among Britain’s wealthiest people. He has faced criticism for his wife’s tax arrangements. And he was, along with Mr Johnson, himself fined for breaches of covid19 laws.

The rise of the new PM, whose own views and policy positions are cut from the same cloth as his party’s, will likely be held up by that party as proof that all is well in Albion.

But Mr Sunak has been handed a poisoned chalice.