After party-loving Boris Johnson, will Rishi Sunak, son-in-law of ‘India’s Bill Gates’ Narayana Murthy, be Britain’s next prime minister?

A former Oxford and Stanford scholar and multimillionaire hedge funder, the UK Chancellor has had a stellar political rise. Now many tip him for the top job

But Downing Street won’t be handed to him on a plate. The ‘Maharajah of the Yorkshire Dales’ faces tricky questions, from his loyalty to Johnson to immigration

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Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak leaves Downing Street after a cabinet meeting in London. Photo: EPA

Published: 7:00pm, 20 Jan 2022Updated: 7:16pm, 20 Jan 2022

As British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces calls to resign following revelations of booze-fuelled parties at his official residence in Downing Street – in breach of his own coronavirus lockdown rules – a teetotaller of Indian heritage is emerging as a possible successor.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, 41, is the bookmakers’ favourite to take over should Conservative MPs trigger a vote of no confidence in Johnson.

If Sunak – who the tabloids once dubbed “Dishy Rishi” for his good looks and generous coronavirus relief measures – does become prime minister, he would be the first person of colour to get the job and the first to swear his parliamentary oath on the Bhagavad Gita, the ancient Hindu scripture.

An MP since only 2015, Sunak’s political rise has been stellar.

But unlike his predecessor as chancellor, Sajid Javid, son of a Pakistani bus driver, Sunak can hardly claim he made it against the odds.

Sunak’s story, and that of his family, runs close to the British establishment and its colonial past.

Rising anger over parties at the official residence of the British prime minister could force Boris Johnson out of 10 Downing Street. Photo: Reuters