Rishi Sunak will be named Britain’s 57th Prime Minister TODAY after rival Penny Mordaunt dropped out of the leadership race.
Mr Sunak won the support of an overwhelming majority of Tory MPs, enabling him to claim the keys to No10.
On the day of Diwali – the Hindu festival of lights – Mr Sunak will become Britain’s first PM of Indian heritage.
Ms Mordaunt dropped out of the contest at the last minute this afternoon after she failed to secure the support of 100 colleagues.
The ex-Chancellor took an early lead in the Tory leadership race, having lost the last one to Liz Truss just weeks ago.
Within hours of Ms Truss announcing her resignation last Thursday, MPs came out in droves to support Mr Sunak.
But his chances of moving to Downing Street were dramatically hampered when Boris Johnson informally launched a spectacular come back bid.
The ex-PM left his glamorous holiday in the Dominican Republic to fly back to London and shore up support.
Tory heavyweights split between two camps, with James Cleverly and Priti Patel going team Boris, and Grant Shapps and Kemi Badenoch waving the flag for Rishi.
Over the weekend Ms Mordaunt trailed behind the pair, with only around two dozen MPs backing her campaign.
On Saturday Mr Sunak and Boris met for late night peace talks.
But the discussion flopped after neither candidate agreed to step aside.
Just 24 hours later on Sunday night Mr Johnson made an exit from the race.
The former Prime Minster insisted he had the numbers to go to a vote of the Conservative membership.
But he threw in the towel as MPs broke for Mr Sunak at a rate of more than two to one.
Rishi Sunak was born on 12 May 1980 in Southampton. His father Usher Sanak was born and raised in Kenya when it was still a British colony while his mother Usha Sunak was born in Tanzania when it was a British territory and was then known as Tanganyika.
Sunak’s grandparents were born in Punjab province, British India. They migrated from East Africa with their families to the UK in the 1960s.
