After a hurried Conservative Party leadership race as a result of Liz Truss’s resignation after only 44 days in office — the shortest tenure of any British prime minister in history — Rishi Sunak was elected as the country’s first prime minister of color.
The resignation of Truss, according to the Washington Post, was a result of her recent economic strategy, which included a number of tax cuts that investors feared Britain couldn’t afford.
Mortgage rates rose and the value of the pound plummeted, causing hardship for those who were already struggling economically due to the pandemic.
“I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party,” Truss said to AP news.
Sunak, who was Britain’s former finance minister and is now the third prime minister in two months, revealed he is on a mission to correct the errors that have been made in the past, particularly with regard to the nation’s economic crisis.
“There will be integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level of the government I lead and I will work day in and day out to get the job done,” Sunak said on Twitter.
Sunak was appointed by lawmakers from the Conservative Party, which is experiencing historic polling lows after a decade of austerity and 18 months of controversy and division in the U.K.
Sunak’s intray is riddled with crises left over from his predecessors, the most difficult of which will be reining in inflation rates not seen since the 1980s.
In addition to the country’s economic challenges, Sunak will have to deal with Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, the political impasse over Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trading arrangements and renewed calls for an independence referendum in Scotland, the case for which is currently being considered by the U.K. Supreme Court, according to AP news.
“We now need stability and unity, and I will make it my utmost priority to bring our party together because that is the only way we will overcome the challenges we face and build a better, more prosperous future for our children and our grandchildren,” Sunak said to CNBC.
Following a tumultuous few months for the U.K. government, Sunak is anticipated to keep Jeremy Hunt, the country’s newly appointed finance minister, in his current position.
However, according to CNN, some have questioned his capacity to bring the fractured Conservative Party back together, and many MPs hold him responsible for the resignation of Boris Johnson, who was removed from office three months ago amid scandal.
Johnson, who withdrew from the leadership race on Sunday, claimed in a statement to The Times that Sunak and Mordaunt had rejected his offer to form a unity ticket out of concern for the “national interest.”
Meanwhile, Sunak has been criticized for being unapproachable, particularly in light of the controversy surrounding his wife’s tax status, with some questioning his ability to lead the country through its cost-of-living crisis.
