What Are Rishi Sunak's Political Beliefs?

Former U.K. finance minister Rishi Sunak was anointed as Britain's new prime minister on Monday afternoon, after Liz Truss's turbulent six weeks in power.

Sunak, 42, was the only leadership candidate to cross the threshold of public support from 100 members of parliament (MPs) to get on the ballot to be considered as Britain's next prime minister.

Penny Mordaunt, the only other challenger, did not pass this threshold, so Sunak is likely to become the next leader.

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who resigned in July following a series of scandals leading to him being unable to form a government, considered running, but failed to gather enough public support from MPs.

Sunak is Britain's first Hindu prime minister and the first of South Asian descent.

Sunak is reportedly the richest man in the U.K. parliament and is married to Indian tech heiress Akshata Murty, whose tax affairs derailed her husband in April 2022.

Sunak will be the U.K.'s fourth prime minister in only six years, but what are his political beliefs?

Economy

Sunak models himself as the heir to Margaret Thatcher, the divisive Conservative U.K. prime minister who ruled between 1979 and 1990.

But the pro-Brexit former Chancellor of the Exchequer is less of a libertarian ideologue than Truss, who advocated for more deregulation, low taxation and a smaller state.

"Rishi Sunak is likely to take a much more orthodox approach to the economy than Liz Truss, prioritising balancing the books instead of a deficit-financed dash for growth," Henry Hill, deputy editor of ConservativeHome.com, told Newsweek.

"This will help to keep the markets under control, but will leave the Government with little fiscal headroom for tax cuts or new spending ahead of the next election."

Sunak's popularity increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, where he introduced the government furlough scheme to allow businesses to put their staff on paid leave until they shored up their finances. It was a major big-state intervention that flew in the face of Conservatism.

When campaigning for the leadership earlier this year, Sunak posed himself as the pragmatic voice on the economy—admitting that Britain has to pay its way and make difficult cuts to stave off soaring inflation and energy prices.

His supporters say his concerns about the economy and what a Truss government would do to it were prescient, foreseeing a huge bond sell-off and a devaluation of the pound.

Climate Change

Sunak is less consistent on social issues, such as climate change and attitudes of LGBTQ+ people.

Although Sunak has claimed that his children are climate "experts" and they talk about it in his home, he has almost always voted against measures to prevent climate change. For example, in February 2020, he voted not to call on the government to eliminate most transport emissions by 2030.

However, Sunak said in July that he would make Britain energy independent by 2045, through more offshore wind, rooftop solar and more nuclear energy. He has also called on millions of homes to be insulated to make them more energy-efficient.

LGBTQ+ Issues

During the Tory leadership campaign over the summer, both Truss and Sunak pandered to "anti-woke" issues to try to win popularity with the roughly 200,000 Conservative members, who were the people who voted them into Downing Street.

Sunak has said that trans people should be "respected," but he added that he saw biology as "important" and "fundamental," regarding toilets and competition in sports.

A Sunak ally told the Daily Mail in July that the former chancellor was "critical of recent trends to erase women via the use of clumsy, gender-neutral language" and if he is elected prime minister, he wouldn't support the language of sex being eroded in legislation or the public sector.

Sunak has not been in parliament during many significant votes on LGBTQ+ issues. In 2019, he was notably not present during the vote on legalising same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland.

International Affairs and Defense

Sunak will likely remain as committed as former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Truss were on providing funding and military support for Ukraine while the country is fighting Russia.

After George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer and the Black Lives Matter movement happened in summer 2020, Sunak spoke out about the racism he faced in public life and the struggles his family faced coming to Britain as immigrants in the 1960s.

When he was British chancellor, Sunak rejected U.S. President Joe Biden's draft plan to introduce a minimum 21-percent global business tax, in part of a plan to crack down on tax avoidance of large multinational corporates such as Amazon and Google.

Although Sunak is popular in his own party, it will be an uphill battle for the Conservatives to win the next general election, which is due to take place before January 2025.

"It's difficult to see a path for the Conservatives to actually win the next election; the past few weeks have done huge damage to their standing with the public, and the cost of containing the economic fallout will not leave many opportunities to try and deliver on the promises made in the 2019 manifesto," Hill said.

"Whilst two years is a long time in politics and nothing can be ruled out, in all likelihood the challenge at the next election is securing a close defeat that leaves the Tories in contention."

Correction 10/24/22, 8.19 a.m. ET: This article was corrected to say the next British general election is due to take place before January 2025. Previously it said it was due to take place next year. Newsweek regrets the error.