Rishi Sunak has won the Conservative leadership contest and will become the UK’s third prime minister in the space of seven weeks, taking over from Liz Truss.
The former chancellor, who has been an MP for seven years and was in the cabinet for just over two years, was confirmed as the winner on Monday after the only other remaining candidate, Penny Mordaunt, failed to reach the threshold of 100 nominations from her fellow MPs. Former prime minister Boris Johnson pulled out of the accelerated leadership contest last night.
Sunak, whose parents are of Punjabi Indian heritage, will be the first person of colour to become UK prime minister. He is not the first minority ethnic PM – Benjamin Disraeli, who held the office twice between 1868 and 1880, was of Jewish heritage.
Sunak is likely to formally take over as prime minister from Truss in the next day or so. If he takes over tomorrow, Truss will have served as prime minister for just 50 days, the shortest tenure in history. She agreed to step down last Thursday after chaos within her cabinet and amid a turbulent reaction to her mini-budget in September.
