Rishi Sunak who has Kenyan roots on Tuesday officially became Britain’s third prime minister in seven weeks, saying “mistakes were made” by his predecessor as he sought to bring stability to the UK after months of political and economic turmoil.
He was appointed by King Charles III at Buckingham Palace in London shortly after Liz Truss tendered her resignation to the monarch following a shambolic 50-day tenure which shook Britain’s economy to its core.
Sunak becomes the first person of color and the first Hindu to lead Britain after winning a fast-tracked Conservative Party leadership contest on Monday.
At 42, he is also the youngest person to take the office in more than 200 years.
After being invited to form a government by the King, Sunak returned to Downing Street where he made a speech aimed at alleviating some of the concerns of the public and laying out aspects of what his premiership will look like.
In his first speech as Britain’s new prime minister, Sunak said the nation was in “profound economic crisis,” before paying tribute to Truss.
“I admired her restlessness to create change. But some mistakes were made. Not borne of ill will or bad intentions. Quite the opposite in fact, but mistakes nonetheless,” he said.
“And I have been elected as leader of my party, and your prime minister in part, to fix them. And that work begins immediately.”
Sunak highlighted his experience as finance minister during the pandemic to illustrate how he intends to tackle the challenges ahead.
“You saw me during Covid doing everything I could to protect people and businesses, with schemes like furlough. There are always limits, more so now than ever. But I promise you this: I will bring that same compassion to the challenges we face today,” he said.
“The government that I lead will not leave the next generation – your children and grandchildren – with a debt to settle that we were too weak to pay ourselves. I will unite our country, not with words but with action.”
Sunak added: “I will work day in and day out to deliver for you. This government will have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level.”
Earlier Tuesday, Truss delivered her outgoing speech at the Downing Street podium before making the short car journey to Buckingham Palace.
Despite a disastrous tenure which saw her become Britain’s shortest serving prime minister in history, Truss appeared full of confidence and smiling, as she called her time in office a “huge honor,” later adding that “brighter days lie ahead.”
“We simply cannot afford to be a low growth country where the government takes up an increasing share of our national wealth, and where there are huge divides between different parts of our country,” Truss said on the economy. “We need to take advantage of our Brexit freedoms to do things differently. This means delivering more freedom for our own citizens and restoring power to democratic institutions.”
Truss concluded by wishing Sunak “every success for the good of our country.”
