Rishi Sunak

Sunak in 2020

Rishi Sunak (born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party since October 2022. Previously he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer under the Second Johnson ministry from 2020 to July 2022. He gained the appointment after the resignation of Sajid Javid in February 2020. He has been the MP for Richmond in Yorkshire since 2015.

He is married to Akshata Murty, the daughter of the co-founder of Infosys.

Quotes

2001

• I have friends who are aristocrats, I have friends who are upper class, I have friends who are working-class...well, not working class.
  • From the BBC documentary series Middle Classes - Their Rise and Sprawl (23 March 2001), as cited in "Rishi Sunak suggests he doesn’t have ‘working class’ friends in resurfaced documentary" The Independent (9 July 2022)

2019

• You are highly accountable. That's what I like about it. You are responsible for your investments and either they're good or they're bad ... There are nor many other people to blame, there's nowhere to hide.
  • Comments on the BBC's Political Thinking podcast. "The Rishi Sunak One" (11 October 2019). Quoted in "Rishi Sunak: the bit-part hedge fund partner now managing the economy" The Guardian (8 March 2020)

2020

• Now, more than any time in our history, we will be judged by our capacity for compassion.  Our ability to come through this, won’t just be down to what government or businesses do, but by the individual acts of kindness that we show each other. The small business who does everything they can not to lay off their staff.  The student who does a shop for their elderly neighbour.  The retired nurse who volunteers to cover some shifts in their local hospital. When this is over, and it will be over, we want to look back on this moment and remember the many small acts of kindness done by us and to us.  We want to look back on this time and remember how we thought first of others and acted with decency.  We want to look back on this time and remember how, in the face of a generation-defining moment, we undertook a collective national effort - and we stood together.  It’s on all of us.
  • Statement on the Coronavirus as Chancellor (20 March 2020)
  • Instagram post @rishisunakmp (21 March 2020)

2022

• And where the ECHR is an obstacle, I will tackle it. We voted to Leave [the EU] so that we could act as a sovereign nation. The ECHR cannot inhibit our ability to properly control our borders and we shouldn't let it. We need to inject a healthy dose of common sense into the system, and that is what my plan does.
• As Chancellor, I funded the Government's Rwanda Policy because it is the right one, but it has to work. Crucially, we cannot waste large sums of taxpayers’ money on the policy only to fall at the first legal hurdle. I will make the policy work and will do whatever it takes to implement it and pursue additional similar partnerships.
  • "Our asylum system is broken. This is my ten-point plan to fix it" The Telegraph (23 July 2022)

• I managed to start changing the funding formulas, to make sure areas like this are getting the funding they deserve because we inherited a bunch of formulas from Labour that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas and that needed to be undone. I started the work of undoing that.
  • Leaked speech delivered in Tunbridge Wells, Kent (29 July 2022)

• There will be integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level of the government I lead and I will work day in and day out to get the job done.
  • "Rishi Sunak promises ‘integrity and professionalism’ as he enters Tory race" The Independent (23 October 2022)
  • Sunak was elected unopposed in the October 2022 Conservative Party leadership election (MP's ballot) on 24 October.

• I’d like to pay tribute to Liz Truss for her dedicated public service to the country.
  She has led with dignity and grace through a time of great change and under exceptionally difficult circumstances, both at home and abroad.
  I am humbled and honoured to have the support of my parliamentary colleagues and to be elected as leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party.
  It is the greatest privilege of my life, to be able to serve the party I love and give back to the country I owe so much to.
  The United Kingdom is a great country, but there is no doubt we face a profound economic challenge.
  We now need stability and unity and I will make it my utmost priority to bring our party and our country together.
  Because that is the only way we will overcome the challenges we face and build a better, more prosperous future for our children and our grandchildren.
  I pledge that I will serve you with integrity and humility. And I will work day in, day out to deliver for the British people.
  • Video : "Rishi Sunak addresses public after confirmation he's next UK prime minister", BBC News (24 October 2022)
  • On becoming Conservative Party leader, the day before becoming Prime Minister.

2023

• Northern Ireland is in the unbelievably special position of having privileged access, not just to the U.K. home market … but also the European Union single market [...] That's like the world's most exciting economic zone!
  • "Rishi Sunak gives EU 'Windsor framework' deal the hard sell in Belfast", Politico (28 February 2023). The newly negotiated Windsor Framework altered the earlier Northern Ireland Protocol which had led the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to walk out of power-sharing institutions in October 2022.

• [On the Commons Privileges Committee investigation into Boris Johnson] This committee was established under the former Prime Minister. It commanded the confidence of the house [of Commons] at the time and I’m sure that they have done their work thoroughly and I respect them for that.
  This is a matter for the house rather than the government, that's an important distinction and that is why I wouldn't want to influence anyone in advance of that vote.
  It will be up to each and every individual MP to make a decision of what they want to do when the time comes, it's important the government doesn't get involved in that because it is a matter for parliament and members as individuals, not as members as government.
  • Speaking on Good Morning Britain (19 June 2023), as cited in "Rishi Sunak refuses to say whether he’ll vote on Boris Johnson partygate report" Evening Standard (19 June 2023)

• We're living through a time at the moment where inflation is high. That's having an impact on household and families' bills. I don't want to add that, I want to make it easier.
  So yes, we're going to make progress towards net zero but we're going to do that in a proportionate and pragmatic way that doesn't unnecessarily give people more hassle and more costs in their lives – that's not what I'm interested in and prepared to do.
  • Comments on a visit to the West Midlands (24 July 2023), as cited in "Rishi Sunak signals he could abandon green policies that cost consumers", The Guardian (24 July 2023)

• [Asking if he would be visiting Scotland on the day of the interview using a private jet] I’ll be flying as I normally would and that is the most efficient use of my time. [...]
  But again I think actually that question brings to life a great debate here. If you or others think that the answer to climate change is getting people to ban everything that they're doing, to stop people flying, to stop people going on holiday, I think that's absolutely the wrong approach.
  • "Rishi Sunak loses it with BBC Scotland presenter in 'car crash' interview" The National (Scotland, 31 July 2023)

• [On the government's policies on dealing with climate change] We should not take any lectures from anybody about our record. Our record is fantastic. It's better than everyone else's.
  • On LBC (2 August 2023), as cited in "PM Sunak says UK climate record 'better than everyone else's'", Reuters (2 August 2023)

Quotes about Sunak

Quotes in alphabetical order according to author or source.

• The Conservative party spent 2022 at war with itself and begins 2023 in an uneasy truce. To keep the peace, Rishi Sunak has to avoid two contentious topics: the past and the future. That doesn’t leave much room for manoeuvre.
  • Rafael Behr "Rishi Sunak is stuck peddling fake solutions – he can’t admit his own party is the problem" The Guardian (11 January 2023).

• Rishi Sunak’s £330bn Tuesday bailout was rather better received – the scale of the package suggested there was some form of intelligent life in cabinet – but after two days of going through the fine detail, those MPs who were still coming to the Commons had come to the conclusion there was rather less to the chancellor’s plan than had met the eye.
  • John Crace writing after Sunak's budget was released. Quoted in "What we wouldn't give for a Gordon Brown or John Major right now" The Guardian (19 March 2020).

• Prime Minister, having been able to get so much done previously, I have struggled even to hold the line in recent months. The problem is not that the government is hostile to the environment, it is that you, our Prime Minister, are simply uninterested. That signal, or lack of it, has trickled down through Whitehall and caused a kind of paralysis.
  • From the resignation letter of Zac Goldsmith, Baron Goldsmith of Richmond Park, cited in "Zac Goldsmith resigns from government with furious attack on Rishi Sunak" The Scotsman (30 June 2023)
  • A minister at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Minister of State for Overseas Territories, Commonwealth, Energy, Climate and Environment, his resignation was accepted by Rishi Sunak, who wrote in reply: "You were asked to apologise for your comments about the privileges committee as we felt they were incompatible with your position as a minister of the crown. You have decided to take a different course.".

• My personal relationship with him is much better [compared with earlier PM, Boris Johnson]. He phoned me the day he became prime minister, gave me his personal number and we said we would work together on things like Ukraine, if there was a terrorist incident, God forbid, or security issues.
  But obviously, we would robustly argue with each other on everything else. So it is a different relationship, and a different relationship across the dispatch box.
• Every time there’s been the threat of a rebellion he’s backed down. The one thing you get if you win the leadership of your party is the right to say ‘I’ve won the leadership and I’m going to do this, and we’re going to do it and this is what I’m saying we’re going to do with the party, and we’re going to do it’. He doesn’t have the ability to do that because he hasn’t got a mandate.
  • Sir Keir Starmer speaking on the Political Party podcast with Matt Forde, as cited in "Sir Keir Starmer: I loathed unprincipled, lying Boris Johnson" The Times (21 February 2023)

• The PM has a 'yes man' in position at the Treasury, who won’t resist pressure to spend more, if the economy starts to buckle under the strain of Brexit.
  • Comment by Samuel Tombs, a consultant economist. Quoted in "New chancellor Rishi Sunak challenged over hedge fund past" The Guardian (14 February 2020).