Rishi Sunak rose to power because of the internal wrangles in the ruling Conservative Party which has had three Prime Ministers in three months.
Unlike in Kenya where the electorates vote for the President directly in an election, in the United Kingdom (UK) voters vote for Members of Parliament (MPs) who then choose the head of government, in this case, the Prime Minister.
The leader of the political party or a coalition of parties with the most MPs in Parliament produces the Prime Minister.
In December 12, 2019, General Election, the ruling Conservative Party defeated the opposition Labour Party by producing 357 MPs. Labour has 196 MPs while other small parties filled the rest of the slots in Parliament.
The House of Commons (equivalent to Kenya’s National Assembly) has 650 MPs.
The Conservative Party colloquially referred to as the Tories produced the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, after winning the 2019 General Election.
The rise of Sunak
Boris Johnson appointed Rishi Sunak as the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister) on February 13, 2020.
On July 5, 2022, Sunak resigned as Chancellor saying PM Johnson’s approach to the economy was too different to his own.
On July 7, 2022, Johnson resigned as UK prime minister after a series of damaging scandals. Sunak’s resignation was one of the tipping points.
Johnson’s resignation paved way for the race to lead the Conservative Party.
On September 5, 2022, Torry members throughout the UK overwhelmingly voted for Liz Truss as their party leader.
Truss, then Foreign Secretary, Truss beat Sunak by over 20,000 votes to become the Conservative party leader after a two-month vote. She was appointed PM on September 6.
Truss’ economic policies to revamp the UK economy caused havoc. She reversed the policies but it was too little too late as members of her party demanded her resignation.
On October 20, 2022, Liz Truss resigned after serving as Prime Minister for only 44 days. A new leadership contest began and Sunak seized the opportunity.
Sunak faced off with Penny Mordaunt, leader of the House of Commons and former Defence Minister after Boris Johnson withdrew from the race.
However, Mordaunt failed to secure the crucial threshold of at least 100 Tory MPs needed to support her to stand in a Conservative Party leadership contest.
Mordaunt was backed by 30 MPs compared with nearly 150 supporting Sunak. And just like that Sunak became the PM without a Conservative Party leadership contest.
UK political analysts observe that either Johnson or Mordaunt would have easily defeated Sunak if the Conservative Party leadership contest was to happen.
The majority of Conservative Party members across the UK are predominately white and race would have played a big role in picking the party’s leader.
Some dare say Sunak is a Prime Minister by ‘accident’.
