Sunak, new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 3:43
(CNN Spanish) --
With his arrival at Downing Street, Rishi Sunak will make history: he will become the youngest Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in more than 200 years, the first belonging to an ethnic minority and the first Hindu to hold office .
Just seven weeks ago this seemed almost impossible.
Recently, the former finance minister made a high-stakes gamble: He launched an attack that helped take down Boris Johnson and ran as his replacement.
However, he lost to Liz Truss, conceded defeat to her, and retired from Parliament.
It could have been the end of his story, but it wasn't.
In a sign of how unpredictable British politics have become, Sunak returned triumphantly to replace Truzz, whose leadership imploded last week.
Sunak was the only leadership hopeful to win the support of more than 100 Conservative MPs, the threshold set by party officials for potential candidates, and will now become the first British-Asian to become Prime Minister and, at 42, also the youngest to hold the position in more than 200 years.
A former millionaire banker of Indian descent
Sunak, whose parents came to the UK from East Africa in the 1960s, is of Indian descent.
His father was a doctor, while his mother ran a pharmacy in the south of England, something that Sunak says made him want to serve the public.
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He will be the first Hindu to become British Prime Minister after securing the job on Diwali, the festival of lights that marks one of the most important days in the Hindu calendar (Sunak himself made history in 2020 when he lit Diwali candles in front of to 11 Downing Street, the official residence of the Chancellor of Economy and Finance).
Sunak has faced challenges from his elite past, having studied at the exclusive Winchester College and Oxford and Stanford universities.
He is known for his expensive tastes when it comes to fashion and has worked for banks and hedge funds like Goldman Sachs.
He has also come under scrutiny over the tax deals of his wife Akshata Murty, the daughter of an Indian billionaire.
This year, Sunak and Murty were featured in the Sunday Times UK's 250 Richest People list.
The newspaper estimated their combined net worth at 730 million pounds ($826 million).
Rishi Sunak's rapid rise to power
Sunak's election on Monday marks the pinnacle of what has been a rapid rise to power.
He was first elected as an MP in 2015 and spent two years in the House of Commons before becoming a junior minister in Theresa May's government.
Johnson was the one who gave Sunak his first major government role, appointing him chief treasury secretary in 2019 and promoting him to finance minister in 2020.
Sunak has experience fighting the economic crisis, having led the UK through the covid-19 pandemic and positioning himself as the "sound finance" candidate.
During the pandemic, Sunak launched 400 billion pounds ($452 billion) worth of measures aimed at boosting the economy, including a generous furlough scheme, loans to businesses and restaurant dining discounts.
However, those stimuli came at a huge cost and left the government scrambling for savings.
Sunak was an early critic of Truss's economic plan, which was criticized by investors, the International Monetary Fund and credit rating agencies.
Although he too advocated lowering taxes, he said they could only be cut when inflation was brought under control, which could take several years.
His warning over the summer that unfunded tax cuts from Truss could trigger a panic in financial markets turned out to be true.
Sterling slumped to a record low against the US dollar as Truss and his minister Kwasi Kwarteng unveiled his plan.
UK government bond prices rose at the fastest pace in history, sending borrowing costs skyrocketing.
Sunak said publicly for the first time on Sunday that he would run for the race.
In a tweet he wrote: "The UK is a great country but we are facing a deep economic crisis. That is why I am running to be Leader of the Conservative Party and its next Prime Minister. I want to fix our economy, unite our party and deliver." with our country."
In the last contest, during the summer, he was considered the more moderate of the two candidates.
Compared to Truss, he took a less ideological line on issues like Brexit and the economy.
Like her, he promised a tough approach to illegal immigration and expanding the government's controversial Rwandan immigration policy.
In that race, he far exceeded the threshold of votes he needed, getting 137 supports, although Truss ended up winning the decisive vote among the grassroots affiliates.
The British humor before the resignation of Liz Truss 1:26
Second opportunity
Johnson has made no secret that he believes Sunak betrayed him by resigning from his government, prompting his resignation on July 7 after a series of scandals made his position untenable.
Johnson's fall came after months of revelations of parties held at 10 Downing Street while the rest of the country was under covid-19 restrictions.
Johnson himself was fined by the police, becoming the first prime minister in history to break the law in his office.
For a long time, Sunak supported Johnson, especially since he too was fined in the so-called Partygate.
However, he turned against Johnson after the then prime minister was slow to act when his deputy chief of staff, Chris Pincher, was accused of sexually assaulting two men at a party in early July.
(Pincher later said that he had "drank too much," though he has not directly addressed the allegations.)
Sunak's surprise resignation from Johnson's cabinet over the Pincher scandal set in motion a series of high-profile resignations that led to Johnson's departure and, ultimately, his own promotion to Downing Street.
Sunak faces a huge task.
The UK is in the throes of a deep cost of living crisis and rising inequality.
Financial markets remain spooked after Truss's disastrous economic policy mistakes.
The Conservative Party, unpopular after 12 years in power, has been plunged into a state of utter chaos over the past four months and is now far behind the opposition Labor Party in opinion polls.
The only consolation for Sunak is that he does not have to call an election until January 2025.