Who is Britain's new prime minister Rishi Sunak? Former finance chief becomes new leader

Abigail Adcox

Misty Severi

October 24, 11:40 AM October 24, 11:40 AM

Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak won the leadership competition to be the next British prime minister Monday, following the resignation of Prime Minister Liz Truss last week.

Sunak, 42, was a prominent figure in former Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Cabinet until his resignation and steered the country's economy through the COVID-19 pandemic and the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Sunak first attempted to become the prime minister over the summer after Boris Johnson resigned from the position but was defeated by Truss. He announced his second bid after Truss's resignation on Thursday.

As Britain's former financial chief, Sunak had cast himself as the candidate who can best address the country's economic crisis, with a background in finance and economics and as the parliamentary private secretary at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

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"The United Kingdom is a great country but we face a profound economic crisis," Sunak tweeted Sunday. "That’s why I am standing to be Leader of the Conservative Party and your next Prime Minister. I want to fix our economy, unite our Party and deliver for our country."

Sunak, who is of Indian descent, will be the country's first Hindu prime minister and first person of color to hold the country's highest elected station.

Sunak said he would focus on tampering inflation rates before cutting taxes over the summer, arguing that it would increase the public debt and be worse for people in the long run if not addressed.

"It’s not moral to ask our children to pick up the tab for the bills that we’re not prepared to pay,” Sunak said in a debate against Truss.

Sunak also accused Truss of telling "fairy tales," referring to the potential fallout of her proposed tax cuts. Truss did end up revealing a mini-budget on her ideas for the economy, but did not propose a way to finance the plan, causing economic uncertainty and worsening the economic crisis.

Sunak has been accused of taking a softened stance on China. However, the former chancellor of the exchequer said that the Chinese Communist Party represented the "largest threat to Britain and the world’s security and prosperity this century" back in July.

To tackle Chinese cyber threats, Sunak has proposed building a new international alliance of "free nations" to share best practices in technology security.

Sunak was first elected as the Conservative member of Parliament for Richmond in May 2015. In February 2020, Sunak was appointed as chancellor of the exchequer. As chancellor, Sunak rolled out a number of aid packages for businesses and residents to help them financially through the pandemic. Earlier this year, he unveiled a plan worth 15 billion euros that was aimed at providing relief to households struggling with the rising cost of living in the country.

He served in the role until July 5, 2022, when he resigned, signaling he had lost confidence in Johnson's ability to lead the party. Prior to his time in politics, Sunak spent years working in finance and "co-founded an investment firm working with companies in multiple geographies," according to his biography on the U.K. government's website.

Sunak will meet with Truss and King Charles III later this week for the official exchange of power, where Truss will officially resign and Sunak will become the new leader. He is expected to give his first address as the new prime minister shortly after the meeting.

UK prime minister: Sunak leads race, Johnson yet to declare

Associated Press

October 23, 01:03 PM October 23, 01:03 PM

LONDON — Former British Treasury chief Rishi Sunak was the front-runner Sunday in the Conservative Party's race to replace Liz Truss as prime minister. Sunak garnered the public support of over 100 Tory lawmakers to forge ahead of his two main rivals: former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and ex-Cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt.

But widespread uncertainty remained after British media reported that Sunak held late-night talks with Johnson on Saturday. Speculation mounted that the pair could strike a deal to unite the fractured governing party after it was left reeling from Truss's rapid downfall following Johnson's ouster.

The Conservative Party hastily ordered a contest that aims to finalize nominations Monday and install a new prime minister — its third this year — within a week.

Sunak, 42, was runner-up after Truss in this summer's Tory leadership race to replace Johnson after he was forced out by a string of ethics scandals. On Sunday, he confirmed he was running again in the latest leadership contest.

Sunak has the backing of at least 124 Conservative lawmakers, according to unofficial tallies compiled by British news organizations. That's well ahead of the 100 nominations required to qualify.

"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 in a statement.

Johnson, who has not yet declared if he is running, has public support from about 50 lawmakers so far, while Mordaunt had support from about 23, according to the unofficial tallies.

U.K. Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg told the BBC on Sunday that he spoke with Johnson and "clearly he's going to stand" after flying back to London Saturday from a vacation in the Dominican Republic.

Mordaunt and Johnson — if he confirms he is running — have until Monday afternoon to garner 100 nominations. If all three meet the threshold, lawmakers will vote to knock out one and then hold an indicative vote on the final two.

The party's 172,000 members would then get to decide between the two finalists in an online vote. The new leader is due to be selected by Friday.

A possible return to power for Johnson, 58, who officially quit only in early September, has deeply divided the Conservatives and alarmed many others. Supporters say he is a vote winner and has enough support from lawmakers, but many critics warn that another Johnson government would be catastrophic for the party and the country.

Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker, a former backer of Johnson and an influential politician within the Conservative Party, warned a Johnson comeback would be a "guaranteed disaster." Baker noted that Johnson still faces an investigation into whether he lied to Parliament while in office about breaking his government's own coronavirus restrictions during parties at Downing Street.

If found guilty, Johnson could be suspended as a lawmaker.

"This isn't the time for Boris and his style," Baker told Sky News on Sunday. "What we can't do is have him as prime minister in circumstances where he's bound to implode, taking down the whole government ... and we just can't do that again."

But Johnson won the backing of several senior Conservatives, including Nadhim Zahawi, another former Treasury chief.

"He was contrite and honest about his mistakes. He'd learned from those mistakes how he could run No 10 and the country better," Zahawi said.

Truss quit Thursday after a turbulent 45 days, conceding that she could not deliver on her botched tax-cutting economic package, which she was forced to abandon after it sparked fury within her party and weeks of turmoil in financial markets.

Sunak, who was Treasury chief from 2020 until this summer, steered Britain's slumping economy through the coronavirus pandemic. He quit in July in protest of Johnson's leadership.

In the summer contest to replace Johnson, Sunak called promises by Truss and other rivals to immediately slash taxes reckless "fairy tales" and argued that climbing inflation must be controlled first.

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Tory voters backed Truss over Sunak, but he was proved right when Truss's unfunded tax-cutting package triggered chaos in the markets in September.

Dozens among Britain's 357 Conservative lawmakers have not yet publicly declared whom they are backing to replace Truss.

SEE IT: Social media trolls Liz Truss following resignation

Jenny Goldsberry

October 20, 11:12 AM October 20, 11:12 AM

Social media erupted at the news that U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned Thursday.

Truss was the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter Thursday morning. A hashtag calling for a general election across the country, #GeneralElectionNow, was also subsequently trending online.

At least five members of Parliament, including Nadia Whittome, Sarah Olney, John McDonnell, Ian Blackford, and Caroline Lucas, took to Twitter to call for a general election following Truss's resignation. Instead, Graham Brady, the chairman of the committee of Conservative lawmakers, will oversee the process of electing a new leader, which the country hopes to do over the next week. Party members are expected to vote between a short list of two candidates selected by Conservative lawmakers by the end of the month.

LIZ TRUSS QUITS: BRITISH PRIME MINISTER RESIGNS JUST SIX WEEKS AFTER TAKING OVER AS LEADER

"It’s over. Liz Truss is resigning and will become shortest-serving Prime Minister in British history," television host Piers Morgan tweeted. "What an absolute shambles."

"I’ve had pimples that lasted longer than Liz Truss as Prime Minister," television commentator Anna Navarro-Cardenas tweeted.

"The beauty of having Liz Truss as PM is that we no longer have to wonder what a Sarah Palin presidency would have looked like," comedian Reginald D. Hunter wrote.

"If only Biden, Kamala and Pelosi would do what Liz Truss did today ..." radio host Tim Young tweeted.

"Liz Truss for Celebrity Big Brother," drag queen Tia Kofi wrote, referring to a reality television series based in the United Kingdom.

Many more Twitter users brought attention to the fact that Truss did not outlast a head of lettuce that local newspaper the Daily Star had set out on a livestream to measure Truss's tenure as prime minister.

"Hearing that Liz Truss’s ousting is part of a Romainer plot," author Kit Yates captioned a picture of a head of lettuce at the prime minister's podium. "Hail Caesar?"

Still, other politicians across the world showed their support for the former PM.

"[Liz Truss] thanks for the help!" Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko tweeted. "You are a real friend of Ukraine! Ukrainians will not forget you!"

President Joe Biden shared a similar sentiment, thanking Truss "for her partnership on a range of issues including holding Russia accountable for its war against Ukraine. We will continue our close cooperation with the U.K. government as we work together to meet the global challenges our nations face."

Truss was in office for 44 days as former Prime Minister Boris Johnson's successor.

Saudi prince's new purpose presents him immunity from Khashoggi killing lawsuit, lawyers claim

Asher Notheis

Oct 03, 04:37 PM October 03, 04:37 PM

Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's new appointment as the country's key minister has granted him immunity in a lawsuit he faces around the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi, his attorneys claimed Monday.

The prince's father, King Salman, named him key minister in a royal decree very last week, with his new position in line with obligations he was by now doing exercises, in accordance to Reuters.

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"The Royal Order leaves no doubt that the Crown Prince is entitled to position-primarily based immunity," reported the legal professionals, who have requested for his situation to be dismissed.

The crown prince, also recognised as MBS, is facing a U.S. lawsuit over the assassination of Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and dissident who had been important of the crown prince's guidelines and whose killing by Saudi brokers is considered by U.S. intelligence to have been ordered by the crown prince. Khashoggi was killed in Istanbul when he frequented the town to get the papers he essential to marry Hatice Cengiz, a Turkish citizen.

The lawsuit, submitted jointly by Cengiz and a human rights group established by Khashoggi, rates that Mohammed and 20 other co-defendants experienced carried out a plot that would "forever silence Mr. Khashoggi" immediately after finding he planned to use the human rights group as "a platform to espouse democratic reform and encourage human legal rights."

For the duration of a check out President Joe Biden created to Saudi Arabia in July, the president reported he informed the crown prince specifically that he nonetheless holds him liable for Khashoggi's murder. Biden experienced promised on the campaign path to make the “pariah” kingdom “pay” for Khashoggi’s demise and, on getting office, launched a U.S. intelligence report that deemed the crown prince liable.

The crown prince has denied buying Khashoggi's killing, though afterwards acknowledged that it took spot underneath his observe.

The General public Fascination Declassification Board proposed in June that Biden release a comprehensive evaluation of the Saudi Arabian journalist’s assassination, in accordance to a report from the Wall Road Journal. On the other hand, the president has not introduced the assessment four months following the letter was sent.

Labour leader congratulates Truss with swipe at Conservatives

Misty Severi

September 05, 10:28 AM September 05, 10:28 AM

When British Labour Leader Keir Starmer congratulated Liz Truss on her electoral earn to come to be the next British prime minister Monday, he took a swipe at the Conservative Celebration.

"I might like to congratulate our next Prime Minister Liz Truss as she prepares for workplace," the Labour chief tweeted. "But soon after 12 years of the Tories all we have to display for it is small wages, high costs, and a Tory value of dwelling disaster. Only Labour can produce the clean start our region needs."

LIZ TRUSS TO Swap BORIS JOHNSON AS BRITISH Prime MINISTER

In a movie on social media, posted hours ahead of Truss was introduced as the up coming primary minister, Starmer claimed that "very little is performing any more," and he argued that neither applicant in the race seemed to know how to resolve the troubles facing the British individuals.

“There’s a standard sense that absolutely nothing is definitely doing the job any more. And neither of the candidates to be prime minister experienced any answer to those people issues," Starmer stated. “They argued that the British people today are not functioning tricky more than enough. How insulting is that? Their arguments all summer season have been alien, so out of contact with what so quite a few persons have been likely by way of. In the Labour Occasion, we know whose aspect we’re on. And if I were likely into Downing Street this week, I’d have obvious commonsense priorities.”

Truss defeated former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak in the key minister election on Monday and will choose more than for Primary Minister Boris Johnson, who introduced his resignation as party leader in July.

"I have been proud to provide as chief of the Conservative Bash for the previous 3 decades, successful the most important the greater part for many years, obtaining Brexit completed, overseeing the swiftest vaccine rollout in Europe and providing important assistance to Ukraine," Johnson tweeted on Monday. "Congratulations to [Truss] on her decisive acquire. I know she has the appropriate strategy to tackle the charge of dwelling crisis, unite our celebration and go on the fantastic perform of uniting and leveling up our country. Now is the time for all Conservatives to get driving her 100 for each cent."

The formal trade of electrical power will arise Tuesday, when Johnson and Truss meet up with Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. Johnson will resign to the queen initially, who will then question Truss to kind a new federal government.

Finnish prime minister tests detrimental for drugs soon after leaked dance celebration video clip

Asher Notheis

August 22, 02:51 PM August 22, 02:51 PM

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin's drug check has appear back damaging, the country's federal government announced Monday.

Marin took her drug exam on Friday in reaction to needs that she get analyzed for drugs immediately after a video clip leaked online displaying her partying with social media influencers and celebrities. No narcotics were being uncovered in the exam, and Marin will fork out for the exam herself, in accordance to the VFAB.

Finland's government did not specify what sort of take a look at was applied on Marin or what the take a look at screened for, but government official Iida Vallin explained to a Finnish newspaper that the in depth check screened for amphetamines, barbiturates, hashish, dextropropoxyphene, cocaine, methadone, and a vary of other narcotics.

WHO IS SANNA MARIN, THE FINNISH Key MINISTER EMBROILED IN Video CONTROVERSY?

Marin insisted during a push conference on Friday that she has never taken medication and did not see any one using medicines at the celebration she attended, in accordance to Reuters.

In one of the films of Marin's partying, which have been leaked on-line very last week, Marin was viewed with a team dancing to music in a property, with anyone listened to producing a reference to "flour gang," a Finnish slang phrase usually employed to refer to cocaine, according to the Each day Mail.

In a different movie filmed later on in the night, Marin was noticed dancing with male singer Olavi Uusivirta in a nightclub. The Finnish primary minister married her long-term lover, Markus Raikkonen, a previous soccer player, in 2020, and the two have a daughter, who was born in 2018, in accordance to the Day by day Mail.

Who is Sanna Marin, the Finnish key minister embroiled in online video controversy?

Asher Notheis

August 20, 07:30 AM August 20, 07:30 AM

Finland's primary minister burst into intercontinental headlines this 7 days when videos of her partying went viral in her home state. But who is Sanna Marin, and how did she come across herself in the community eye?

Marin was elected to the position of primary minister on Dec. 10, 2019, at 34 several years previous, earning her the youngest human being elected as Finland's leading and only the third female to provide in the situation. Ahead of Marin turned primary minister, she experienced been energetic in Finland's middle-left Social Democratic Party considering the fact that the age of 20, according to CNN.

Born in 1985, her parents divorced when she was a child “because of my father’s alcoholic beverages problem,” Marin wrote in a 2016 site article. Her mother then started a relationship with yet another woman, and Marin and her two mothers lived in a rented condominium the place they had an “abundance” of love, in accordance to a translation of the blog delivered by the outlet.

FINNISH Primary MINISTER Takes DRUG Test After LEAKED DANCE Celebration Online video

Marin's to start with established of work opportunities included performing at a bakery at the age of 15, distributing publications in high college, and working as a cashier after graduation. In reflecting on her childhood, Marin has said that "a weak family’s boy or girl can educate on their own and accomplish their goals in lifetime," she wrote on social media.

At the age of 27, Marin was elected as the leader of the city council for Tampere, Finland, a position she served from 2013 to 2017. In 2015, she grew to become a member of Parliament, in which she served as a member of the country's "Grand Committee, Lawful Affairs Committee, and Surroundings Committee," according to Columbia College.

Marin's focuses have been on supporting Finland's maximize in refugee intakes and boosting the country's taxes to help the welfare point out. She has also voiced assistance for environmental problems, contacting climate improve and the loss of biodiversity "some of the largest problems of our moments," according to the college.

In 2018, Marin and her lover, Markus Raikkonen, a former soccer player, experienced a daughter in 2018. Raikkonen and Marin bought married two yrs after their daughter was born, according to the Every day Mail.

Marin hit the headlines before this week when video clips emerged online demonstrating her partying with others. In one particular video clip, somebody could be heard building a reference to "powder gang," a Finnish slang phrase usually used to refer to cocaine, and in an additional movie, Marin is viewed dancing provocatively with a man who is not her spouse.

In response to the leaked videos and demands from her critics, Marin announced that she experienced taken a drug test and insisted she had under no circumstances taken medicine and did not see any person using prescription drugs at the bash she attended, she claimed throughout a push conference Friday.

"In new times, there have been quite grave community accusations that I was in a area the place drugs had been employed or that I myself utilized drugs. I take into consideration these accusations to be extremely significant, and however I look at the need for a drug take a look at unjust, for my personal legal protection and to clear up any uncertainties, I have taken a drug test right now, the effects of which will occur in about a week," the primary minister said.

Final yr, she was criticized for remaining witnessed at a nightclub following experiences that she had been in close get hold of with a governing administration colleague who analyzed constructive for COVID-19. Marin apologized afterward, proclaiming she was to begin with informed not to isolate but was later instructed to stay clear of social speak to through a text information she did not see right until afterwards.