Unstable Politics in the UK: Rishi is the fifth PM in the last six years
Vinayak Barot
New Delhi: Unstable politics in the United Kingdom (UK) has raised questions about the government system of Britishers, as the Indian-origin Rishi Sunak became the fifth Prime Minister of the UK in the last six years. Rishi Sunak’s predecessors include David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, and Liz Truss.
In the last 12 years, Brexit, the cost-of-living crisis, Inflation, bringing investment to the UK, Covid, the economy, and trade struggle remained extremely hot political topics, and that forced many leaders to quit politics and leadership.
As per the Goldman Sachs analyst, Sunak, who only entered parliament in 2015, faces a challenge ending the factional infighting that has brought his party low. Many Conservatives remain angry with him for quitting as finance minister in July and triggering a wider rebellion that ended Boris Johnson’s premiership.
Others question how a multi millionaire can lead the country when millions of people are struggling with surging food and energy bills.
Last five PMs of the UK
Sept22 to Oct22 – Mary Elizabeth Truss, a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022.
2019 to 2022 – Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2018 and as Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016.
2016 to 2019 – Theresa May, a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She served as Home Secretary from 2010 to 2016 in the Cameron government and has been the Member of Parliament for Maidenhead in Berkshire since 1997.
2010 to 2016 – David William Donald Cameron is a British politician and lobbyist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016.
It wasn’t always like this. Before this, the country saw three PMs within a year only twice, the last being in 1834. Before Gordon Brown of the Labour Party became the prime minister in 2007, the UK had only three prime ministers in about three decades.
Brown’s successor was David Cameron of the Conservative Party, and he had a long run (2010-16), and his exit started a game of musical chairs. But some of the origins of the present crisis in the United Kingdom go even further back.
Now the UK is ‘Ready for Rishi’
History turns full circle as 1980-born Rishi Sunak becomes the first person of Indian origin – also, the first non-white – to be prime minister of the once colonial power from which India wrested independence 75 years ago.
Experts’ views on PM Sunak’s wife
There are no rules about the citizenship of a UK prime minister’s wife, and UK prime minister Rishi Sunak is perfectly entitled to have a wife who is an Indian citizen. She does not have to change her citizenship to be British for him to be UK PM. The prime minister is, by convention, an MP who leads the largest party in the House of Commons and has to be chosen by the King. Sunak was asked to form a government by the King on Tuesday and his party has a majority in the House of Commons.
