Premiership of Rishi Sunak
Period of the Government of the United Kingdom from 2022 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rishi Sunak's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom began on 25 October 2022 when he accepted an invitation from King Charles III to form a government, succeeding Liz Truss. He is the first British Indian and the first Hindu to hold the office.[1] As prime minister, Sunak is also serving as First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union. His premiership was dominated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, the cost of living crisis and the Rwanda asylum plan. On 22 May 2024, Sunak announced a snap general election on 4 July 2024, after which a new ministry will be formed. His government will operate in a caretaker capacity until after the election.
This article needs to be updated. (May 2024) |
Premiership of Rishi Sunak 25 October 2022 – present | |
Monarch | Charles III |
---|---|
Cabinet | Sunak ministry |
Party | Conservative Party |
Seat | 10 Downing Street |
TBD. → | |
Having previously served in government as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Boris Johnson, Sunak was defeated by Truss in the July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election and spent the duration of Truss's premiership as a backbencher. Following Truss's resignation amid a government crisis, Sunak was elected unopposed to succeed her after being the sole nominee in the October 2022 party leadership election.[2] He was elected Leader of the Conservative Party on 24 October and was appointed prime minister the following day.[3][4] In his victory speech, Sunak paid tribute to Truss and said that she "was not wrong" to want to implement growth and "admired her restlessness to create change", but admitted that "some mistakes were made" and promised to place economic stability and confidence at the heart of his government's agenda.
As prime minister, Sunak has authorised foreign aid and weapons shipments to Ukraine in response to the Russian invasion of the country. He and Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt have continued the levelling up policy introduced during the premiership of Boris Johnson. In January 2023, Sunak outlined five key priorities, one of which is the Illegal Migration Bill.[5] In February 2023, Sunak negotiated a proposed agreement with the European Union (EU) on Northern Ireland's trading arrangements which was published as the "Windsor Framework", which is designed to address the issue of the movement of goods between the European single market and the UK in the current Northern Ireland Protocol; the agreement did not receive the support of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) until February 2024, when the Northern Ireland Executive was restored following further negotiations between the DUP and Sunak's government. In his speech at the October 2023 Conservative Party Conference, Sunak announced the cancellation of the western branch and the remainder of the eastern branch of the planned High Speed 2 (HS2) railway line.[6][7][8] He has also made the Rwanda asylum plan a key policy of his government, although he said that before the 2024 general election there would be no flights to Rwanda for those seeking asylum. Sunak has reshuffled his Cabinet twice, the latter of which resulted in the return of the former prime minister David Cameron to government.
Under Sunak's leadership, the Conservatives performed poorly at the 2022 and 2023 local elections, where Labour and the Liberal Democrats made gains from Conservatives, often by very wide margins. The parties made further gains in the 2024 local elections, in which both Labour and the Liberal Democrats had a greater number of successful candidates than the Conservatives. Many by-elections were won by their candidates during the 2019-2024 parliament, and a record number of Conservative MPs did not stand for re-election. Sunak has led his party in the 2024 United Kingdom general election, with discussion around the campaign being focused on the prospect of a change in government.