Rishi Sunak

Early Life and Education

Where is Rishi Sunak from originally?

British Roots: Rishi Sunak was born on May 12, 1980, at Southampton General Hospital in Hampshire, South East England. His family lived in a six-bedroom home in Southampton where he and his siblings played cricket in the street.

Southampton Upbringing: Sunak’s connection to his hometown remained strong through his youth. He showed his work ethic early by working as a waiter at Kuti’s Brasserie, a curry house in Southampton, during summer holidays while studying at Winchester College. The future Prime Minister learned the value of earning his own money despite his privileged education.

Rishi Sunak’s parents and family background

Immigrant Lineage: Sunak’s family story spans three continents. His grandparents came from Punjab in British India. His paternal grandfather Ramdas Sunak moved from Gujranwala (now in Pakistan) to Nairobi, Kenya in 1935. Raghubir Berry, his maternal grandfather, worked as an engineer after moving from Punjab to Tanzania.

Parental Journey: Sunak’s parents were born in East Africa—his father Yashvir in Kenya and his mother Usha in Tanganyika (modern-day Tanzania). They moved to the United Kingdom separately in 1966 and married in 1977. The couple made Southampton their home in the late 1970s and built successful careers in healthcare while raising their family.

Family Unit: Rishi, the eldest of three children, grew up alongside his siblings who found success in their own fields. His brother Sanjay became a psychologist, and his sister Rakhi now leads Humanitarian, Peacebuilding, UN Funds and Programs at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Service and education shaped all three siblings’ career choices.

Professional Parents: His parents’ dedication and work ethic left a lasting impression on Sunak. His father served as a general practitioner for the National Health Service, while his mother ran her own local pharmacy. Young Rishi learned about financial management by helping with his mother’s pharmacy books.

Rishi Sunak’s education trip from Winchester to Stanford

Early Education: Sunak started his academic life at Stroud School in Hampshire, set in 22 acres of rural Hampshire. He excelled as head boy and cricket team captain, and played football, hockey, and athletics. Before Stroud, he attended Oakmount, another local prep school, until it closed in 1989.

Winchester Excellence: Sunak attended the prestigious Winchester College from the early 1990s until 1998. His parents sacrificed much to pay the fees, which now cost about £49,152 yearly for boarding students. He thrived at Winchester, becoming head boy and editing the school newspaper, The Wykehamist.

Oxford Achievement: Lincoln College, Oxford came next, where Sunak studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE)—a program that produced many British prime ministers. He led the Oxford Trading & Investment Society and worked as an intern at Conservative Party headquarters, showing his early interest in politics.

Stanford Culmination: A Fulbright Scholarship took Sunak to Stanford University for his MBA. There he met his future wife, Akshata Murthy, daughter of Indian billionaire and Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy. Stanford changed his outlook completely. He said: “At Stanford, you’re in the heart of an ecosystem and a culture that is unlike anything else I’ve seen in the world… Everyone is interested in changing the world, and they start with the biggest of dreams”.

From Finance to Parliament: The Early Career

Rishi Sunak’s business career before politics

Goldman Sachs beginnings: After graduating from Oxford in 2001, Rishi Sunak started his professional trip at investment banking giant Goldman Sachs. He worked as an analyst there until 2004. His time at Goldman gave him valuable experience in global markets and investment strategies that shaped his future career.

Hedge fund success: Sunak then joined The Children’s Investment Fund Management (TCI), a prestigious hedge fund run by billionaire Sir Chris Hohn. He quickly rose through the ranks and became a partner in September 2006. During his time at TCI, he worked through the 2008 financial crisis. The fund bought a stake in Dutch bank ABN Amro and pushed for its sale to Royal Bank of Scotland. This deal later led RBS to need a £45.5 billion taxpayer bailout.

International ventures: At just 29, Sunak moved to California in November 2009 to join his former colleagues at a new hedge fund called Theleme Partners. The fund opened in October 2010 with INR 59066.32 million under management (worth INR 85139.87 million in 2024). Patrick Degorce, who played a key role in Sunak’s financial career, led these ventures.

Family business connections: Sunak managed to keep his connection to his wife’s family business empire. He served as a director at Catamaran Ventures from 2013 to 2015. His father-in-law, Indian billionaire N.R. Narayana Murty, the co-founder of technology giant Infosys, owned this investment firm.

How Sunak entered politics and won his first seat

Conservative beginnings: Sunak’s political career took off in 2010 when he started working for the Conservative Party. This switch from finance to politics marked the start of his quick rise in British government.

Think tank contributions: The Conservative think tank Policy Exchange named Sunak head of their Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Research Unit in 2014. That same year, he helped write “A Portrait of Modern Britain,” a pamphlet that explored BME communities in the UK.

Richmond selection: A key moment arrived in October 2014. The Conservative Party chose Sunak as their candidate for Richmond in North Yorkshire, a safe Conservative seat that William Hague, the former party leader, had held. This choice opened the door to his parliamentary career.

Electoral victory: Sunak won his first parliamentary seat decisively in the 2015 general election with 19,550 votes (36.2%). This soaring win established his place in British politics and launched his legislative career.

Rishi Sunak’s early political roles and Brexit stance

Committee work: Sunak served on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee during the 2015-2017 Parliament. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy later appointed him as Parliamentary Private Secretary until he became a minister.

Brexit advocate: Sunak showed early support for Brexit during the 2016 European Union membership referendum. He criticized EU immigration laws and said: “We are discriminating against countries with whom we have ties of history, language and culture”. This early Brexit backing helped speed up his rise in British politics.

Policy contributions: Beyond his Brexit stance, Sunak wrote several influential papers. He created a report for the Center for Policy Studies that promoted free ports after Brexit. He also wrote about creating a retail bond market for small and medium-sized enterprises. In 2017, he wrote a paper for Policy Exchange about the UK’s undersea infrastructure’s importance and vulnerability.

Electoral consolidation: Sunak strengthened his position by winning re-election in both 2017 and 2019. His majority increased to 23,108 (40.5%) and then to 27,210 (47.2%). These victories secured his place in the Conservative Party and set him up for higher office.

Chancellor of the Exchequer: Crisis and Opportunity

Handling the COVID-19 pandemic

Historic appointment: Rishi Sunak took office as Chancellor of the Exchequer on February 13, 2020, just as COVID-19 began to spread across the globe. The pandemic dominated his time in office and made him a key figure in Britain’s economic response. The government introduced an emergency support package worth £330 billion for struggling businesses on March 17, 2020. Sunak declared: “Now, more than any time in our history, we will be judged by our capacity for compassion.”

Economic protector: Sunak promised to do “whatever it takes” to support the economy as the pandemic grew worse. His quick response earned him high approval ratings early in the crisis, though these dropped amid 2022’s cost-of-living challenges. His emergency measures marked an unprecedented government intervention during peacetime.

The furlough and Eat Out to Help Out schemes

Wage lifeline: Sunak’s signature policy became the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (furlough), which cost about £14 billion each month. The program started in March 2020 and covered 80% of staff wages up to £2,500 per person. The scheme helped 11.6 million jobs before it ended in September 2021 after several extensions.

Hospitality boost: Sunak launched the controversial “Eat Out to Help Out” scheme in July 2020. The program subsidized 50% of food and soft drinks at participating restaurants (up to £10 per person) on Mondays through Wednesdays in August. The program ended up subsidizing £849 million in meals. Studies later suggested it led to increased COVID-19 infections—a connection Johnson accepted but Sunak denied repeatedly.

Rishi Sunak’s budgets and economic policies

Fiscal impact: Sunak’s March 2021 budget highlighted the pandemic’s severe economic damage. The economy shrank by 10% (the largest fall in 300 years) and borrowing reached wartime levels. He raised corporation tax from 19% to 25%, becoming the first Chancellor since 1974 to increase this tax.

Cost-of-living measures: Sunak raised the National Insurance threshold by £3,000 as inflation pressures grew in 2022. In stark comparison to this, he managed to keep the controversial 1.25 percentage point National Insurance increase, despite critics saying it would hurt struggling families.

Controversies around tax and green card

Family finances: Public scrutiny hit Sunak hard in 2022 when news broke about his wife’s non-dom status. Akshata Murty’s status potentially saved millions in UK taxes on her overseas earnings. She later announced she would pay UK tax on her worldwide income, saying she didn’t want her status “to be a distraction”.

American ties: The revelation about Sunak’s US green card sparked similar controversy. He had declared himself a “permanent US resident” for tax purposes for 19 months while Chancellor and six years as an MP. His spokesperson said he returned the green card on his first US trip as Chancellor, though questions about his long-term plans remained.

The Premiership: Leading Through Turbulence

How Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister

Unexpected rise: King Charles III appointed Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister on October 25, 2022, after Liz Truss’s disastrous 45-day premiership. He became the first British Asian and first Hindu to hold the office. Though Truss had defeated him in the previous leadership contest, Sunak ended up as the only qualifying candidate by securing the required 100 MP nominations.

First words: Sunak’s inaugural speech promised “integrity, professionalism, and accountability.” He committed to making economic stability and confidence central to his government’s agenda.

Key pledges and domestic challenges

Five priorities: Sunak laid out his government’s main goals in January 2023: halving inflation, growing the economy, reducing debt, cutting NHS waiting lists, and stopping Channel migrant boats. Notwithstanding that, official figures showed the UK had slipped into recession by early 2024. The economy shrank 0.3% in late 2023 and grew just 0.1% for the entire year.

Economic struggles: Sunak stepped into office facing a dire economic situation. Inflation had reached 40-year highs and economists predicted a long recession. His careful fiscal approach helped lower inflation but couldn’t shield the country from other economic challenges.

Foreign policy: Ukraine, Israel, and Rwanda plan

Global stance: People saw Sunak as uninterested in foreign affairs at the time he took office. He later claimed his position on the world stage, especially with his support for Ukraine through military aid and a security pact with Kyiv. The October 7 Hamas attack led him to pledge UK support for Israel, though he later called for a “sustainable ceasefire” as civilian deaths increased.

Migration strategy: The Rwanda asylum plan became Sunak’s defining policy to tackle illegal Channel crossings. Parliament passed the controversial bill that declared Rwanda a safe country for asylum seekers in April 2024. The government planned first flights 10-12 weeks later, but no deportations took place during his time in office.

2024 general election and resignation

Sudden decision: Sunak announced a surprise snap election for July 4 on May 22, 2024, which ended months of speculation. Labor won by a landslide, bringing 14 years of Conservative rule to an end.

Graceful exit: Sunak’s farewell speech included an apology: “I have heard your anger, your disappointment, and I take responsibility for this loss”. He stepped down from both his Prime Minister role and Conservative Party leadership.

Personal Life and Public Image

Rishi Sunak wife and family

Family Bonds: Rishi Sunak met Akshata Murty at Stanford University in California. She’s the daughter of Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy and brings her own achievements to their relationship. The couple’s two daughters, Krishna and Anoushka, keep them “busy and entertained”. Family time remains precious to Sunak. When Liz Truss stepped down in October 2022, he was at TGI Fridays with his daughters, enjoying lunch before taking them bowling.

Wedding Rishi Sunak: A look at his marriage

Simple Celebration: The couple married in August 2009 in Bangalore with a traditional yet modest ceremony. The private wedding came after a ‘mehendi’ ceremony hosted by Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw. The grand reception at Leela Palace Hotel drew Bangalore’s elite – IT leaders, business moguls, and sports stars like Anil Kumble and Prakash Padukone. Narayana Murthy’s letter to his daughter described his first impression of Sunak as “brilliant, handsome, and most importantly, honest”.

Rishi Sunak net worth and lifestyle

Considerable Wealth: Sunak and his wife’s combined fortune reaches £651 million according to the 2024 Sunday Times Rich List, placing them as the 245th richest family in the UK. Akshata’s 0.9% shareholding in Infosys makes up most of this wealth, valued at nearly £590 million. Sunak’s personal income stands at £2.2 million in 2022-23. Their property collection spans a Georgian manor house in North Yorkshire, a £7 million mews house in Kensington, and a penthouse apartment in Santa Monica.

How tall is Rishi Sunak? Public curiosity and image

People’s curiosity about Sunak’s height hasn’t faded throughout his political career. He stands at 5 feet 6 inches (170 cm). His height puts him in good company with other influential leaders – Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy (5’5″) and Winston Churchill (5’5″). Sunak follows an intermittent fasting routine, going without food for 36 hours weekly from Sunday evening until Tuesday morning.

Books and hobbies: The lighter side of Sunak

Sunak loves reading racy novels by Jilly Cooper. His favorites include Riders, Rivals, Polo, The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous and Appassionata. He unwinds by watching Emily in Paris and Bridgerton. His morning routine starts with a Peloton bike workout. Cricket, football, and movies fill his spare moments.

Giving Back

Sunak and Akshata launched The Richmond Project in 2024. This charity aims to boost numeracy across the UK. Named after their North Yorkshire home and Sunak’s constituency, it helps struggling schoolchildren, families who lack number confidence, and adults who never learned simple math. They saw number confidence as an area where they could make a real impact. Sunak believes education is “the closest thing there is to a silver bullet”.

Key Takeaways

Sunak’s interests range from sophisticated to everyday – he enjoys McDonald’s breakfast while reading Jilly Cooper novels. His wealth with Akshata surpasses King Charles III’s fortune, yet he values simple pleasures like bowling with his daughters. Critics point to his wealth as a sign he’s out of touch, but Sunak tries to show a more relatable side through his everyday hobbies and focus on family.

Time Line

Also Read: Journey of Nikki Haley, Pravind Kumar Jugnauth

FAQ: