Rishi Sunak looks set to become the United Kingdom’s first prime minister of colour.
Sunak will formally occupy Downing Street after his only remaining rival for the job, former defense minister Penny Mordaunt, said on Twitter she will drop out of the contest.
“Rishi has my full support,” wrote Mordaunt on her social media account on Monday.
Former prime minister Boris Johnson also dropped out of the race to become the Conservative Party leader after he signaled an interest to return to Downing Street when Liz Truss resigned as prime minister last week, only after six weeks in office.
Graham Brady, the Conservative official responsible for the leadership contest, said the new prime minister will be announced by Friday.
Sunak, 42, was born to Indian parents Yashvir and Usha Sunak in east Africa. He is married to Akshata Murty, the daughter of Infosys founder NR Narayan Murthy. The couple have two children.
In 2015, he became an MP from the constituency with a majority of 36.2% votes. Sunak was re-elected in the 2017 general elections. He served as the parliamentary under-secretary of state for local government from 2018 to 2019 and was appointed chief secretary to treasury by Johnson in 2019.
In the same year, he also became a member of the Privy Council and was re-elected in the 2019 general election. In July 2022, Sunak resigned from his post along with minister Sajid Javid, expressing a lack of confidence in Johnson’s leadership.
He announced his prime ministerial bid later that week and topped the first two rounds of the race within the Conservative Party.
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