Former finance minister Rishi Sunak will be the United Kingdom’s next prime minister after seeing off his lone remaining rival, Penny Mordaunt, on Monday.
Sunak, 42, will become the first person of color to lead the UK, and the youngest to do so in more than 200 years.
The contest was staged after Liz Truss quit as prime minister, becoming Britain’s shortest-serving leader ever following a disastrous term.
Rishi Sunak becoming UK’s leader has been welcomed as a “Barack Obama moment” by the United Kingdom Hindu community.
“It’s a proud moment for us, definitely. Someone who belongs to the temple taking the highest post in the country as the prime minister of the United Kingdom,” Sanjay Chandarana, the president of the Vedic Society Hindu Temple in Southampton, said.
“It’s a Barack Obama moment for us. A South Asian, Indian, origin prime minister in the UK. Everyone here is so thrilled to hear that news,” he added.
Just like Obama, Sunak has a connection with Kenya. His grandparents were born in India and his parents emigrated to the UK from East Africa in the 1960s.
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His father was born and raised in the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya (present-day Kenya), while his mother was born in Tanganyika (which later became part of Tanzania).
His grandfathers were born in Punjab province, British India, and migrated from East Africa with their families to the UK in the 1960s.
Sunak was born on 12 May 1980 in Southampton to African-born Hindu parents of Punjabi Indian descent, Yashvir and Usha Sunak. He is the eldest of three siblings.
