![\"Rishi](\"https:\/\/c.ndtvimg.com\/2022-10\/uq4qc94o_rishi-sunak-afp_625x300_25_October_22.jpg\"\/ "\\"Rishi")
<\/div>\nRishi Sunak will take power in a morning audience with King Charles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
London: <\/b><\/p>\n
Rishi Sunak will on Tuesday be installed as Britain’s third prime minister this year, replacing the humiliated Liz Truss after just seven weeks and inheriting a daunting array of problems.<\/p>\n
Mr Sunak became the ruling Conservatives’ new leader on Monday after rival contender Penny Mordaunt failed to secure enough nominations from Tory MPs, and Boris Johnson dramatically aborted a comeback bid.<\/p>\n
The 42-year-old Hindu will be Britain’s first prime minister of colour and the youngest in more than two centuries.<\/p>\n
Mr Sunak will take power in a morning audience with King Charles III, who is anointing his first prime minister since ascending the throne just two days after his late mother Queen Elizabeth II appointed Truss.<\/p>\n
The ceremony on September 6 was the last major public act of her record-breaking reign.<\/p>\n
Truss will hold a final cabinet meeting before making a departing statement in Downing Street at around 10:15 am (0915 GMT), with Mr Sunak expected to speak just over an hour later.<\/p>\n
She leaves office as the shortest-serving premier in history, after a calamitous tax-slashing budget sparked economic and political turmoil.<\/p>\n
The 47-year-old announced her resignation last Thursday, admitting she could not deliver her “mandate” from Conservative members — who had chosen her over Mr Sunak in the summer.<\/p>\n
He has now staged a stunning turnaround in political fortunes, and vows to do the same for Britain as it confronts decades-high inflation, surging borrowing costs and imminent recession.<\/p>\n
Addressing the public on Monday, Mr Sunak promised “stability and unity” as well as bringing “our party and our country together”.<\/p>\n
‘Choices’<\/strong><\/p>\n After delivering the now all-too-familiar new leader’s speech from the steps of Number 10 at around 11:35 am, Britain’s fifth prime minister in six years will start appointing his top team before facing his first session of “Prime Minister’s Questions” in parliament on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Finance minister Jeremy Hunt, appointed by Truss just 11 days ago in an ultimately futile bid to salvage her premiership, could remain in the role after stabilising the markets.<\/p>\n He endorsed Mr Sunak on Sunday, writing in the Telegraph that he was a leader “willing to make the choices necessary for our long-term prosperity”.<\/p>\n After reversing almost all of Truss’s various tax cuts, Hunt has warned “difficult decisions” loom over public spending.<\/p>\n Whoever heads the Treasury is set to unveil the government’s much-anticipated medium-term fiscal plans on October 31, Halloween, alongside independent assessments.<\/p>\n Mr Sunak must also decide whether to appoint to his cabinet senior MPs who did not support him, such as Mordaunt, in a bid to unify his fractured party.<\/p>\n One so-called big beast unlikely to get a seat around the table is his former boss Johnson, who was driven out in July partly thanks to Mr Sunak’s resignation.<\/p>\n The pair met late Saturday, when Johnson reportedly urged him to form a power-sharing partnership.<\/p>\n The ex-leader had only secured the public backing of a few dozen Tory MPs, compared to well over 100 for Mr Sunak, and the offer was rebuffed.<\/p>\n A day later, Johnson bowed to political reality and announced he would not move forward with his audacious comeback.<\/p>\n “You can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament,” he acknowledged.<\/p>\n ‘No mandate’<\/strong><\/p>\n Mr Sunak, a wealthy descendant of immigrants from India and East Africa, is also facing calls for a general election after becoming the latest UK leader who lacks a direct mandate from the electorate.<\/p>\n Pollster Ipsos said Monday that 62 percent of voters want a vote by the end of the year.<\/p>\n “He has no mandate, no answers and no ideas,” Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner tweeted.<\/p>\n Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon, whose nationalist government wants to hold an independence referendum next year, echoed the comments — while recognising the significance of Britain getting its first leader of colour.<\/p>\n The next election is not due until January 2025 at the latest and opposition parties have no way to force one, unless dozens of Conservative MPs acquiesce.<\/p>\n That appears unlikely as a flurry of polls show Labour with its largest lead in decades.<\/p>\n YouGov modelling Monday showed Mr Sunak faces an uphill battle to restore confidence in both the Tories and himself.<\/p>\n Weekend responses from 12,000 people found that Labour leader Keir Starmer was seen as the “best prime minister” in 389 constituencies, compared with Mr Sunak’s 127.<\/p>\n (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n