Rishi Sunak wins vote to become U.K.’s next Prime Minister

LONDON, UK 

Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who warned that Liz Truss’s economic plans for Britain were a “fairy tale,” won the contest to succeed her as prime minister on Monday, taking over the world’s sixth-biggest economy at a time of deep financial and political turbulence.

Mr. Sunak (above) will formally enter Downing Street after his only remaining rival for the job, former Defense Minister Penny Mordaunt, said she would drop out of the contest. 

HE is expected to meet with King Charles III to be formally appointed prime minister on Tuesday, government officials said.

Mr. Sunak’s rise to the top job in Britain marks a historic moment. 

The grandson of Indian immigrants to Britain, the 42-year-old will be the first person of color and the first Hindu to lead the U.K. 

He will also be the youngest prime minister since Robert Banks Jenkinson, Earl of Liverpool, in 1812. But his success will be determined by how well he manages the growing challenges to Britain’s economy as high inflation and a looming recession create a sense of growing despair.

"There is no doubt that we face profound economic challenges,” Mr. Sunak said Monday after his victory. “We now need stability and unity.”

The former hedge-fund manager arrives with a mandate to bring calm to the ruling Conservative Party following a period of unparalleled chaos that will see the country run by three prime ministers in seven weeks—a first for the U.K. 

On Sunday night, his main rival for the job, the colorful but controversial former leader Boris Johnson, pulled out of the leadership race, saying he couldn’t unite the party.

On Monday, Mr. Sunak addressed Conservative Party lawmakers during a private meeting in the House of Commons and pledged to unify the party. 

He warned them that they faced “an existential threat” and would lose the next election if they didn’t unite, said Simon Hoare, a Conservative lawmaker who was present. “There are no second chances,” Mr. Sunak told his party, according to Mr. Hoare.

Mr. Sunak takes over from Ms. Truss, who became the shortest-serving prime minister in British history after her flagship economic program to stimulate the economy with tax cuts at a time of high inflation was rejected by investors, causing the pound to sink to a record low and the Bank of England to intervene in bond markets to stabilize the price of U.K. government debt. - Africa