Rishi Sunak

Sunak was selected as the Conservative candidate for Richmond (Yorks) in October 2014. The seat had previously been held by William Hague, a former leader of the party, Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State, who chose to stand down at the following general election.[8] The seat is one of the safest Conservative seats in the United Kingdom and has been held by the party for over 100 years.[19] In the same year Sunak was head of the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Research Unit of centre-right think tank Policy Exchange, for which he co-wrote a report on BME communities in the UK.[20] He was elected as MP for the constituency in the 2015 general election with a majority of 19,550 (36.2%).[21] During the 2015–2017 parliament he was a member of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee.[22]

Sunak supported the UK leaving the European Union (EU) in the June 2016 membership referendum.[23] That year, he wrote a report for the Centre for Policy Studies (a Thatcherite think tank) supporting the establishment of free ports after Brexit, and the following year wrote a report advocating for the creation of a retail bond market for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).[24][25][26]

Sunak was re-elected as MP in the 2017 general election, with an increased majority of 23,108 (40.5%).[27] He was Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Local Government between January 2018 and July 2019.[22] Sunak voted for then-Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit withdrawal agreement on all three occasions and voted against a referendum on any withdrawal agreement.[28] He supported Boris Johnson in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election and co-wrote an article in The Times newspaper with fellow MPs Robert Jenrick, and Oliver Dowden to advocate for Johnson during the campaign in June.[29][30]

He was re-elected in the 2019 general election with an increased majority of 27,210 (47.2%).[31] During the election campaign, Sunak represented the Conservatives in both the BBC's and ITV's seven-way election debates.[32][33]

Sunak was appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury by Prime Minister Boris Johnson on 24 July 2019 and served under Chancellor Sajid Javid until February 2020.[34] He became a member of the Privy Council the next day.[35]

In the weeks leading up to Sunak's appointment as Chancellor, a number of briefings in the press had suggested that a new economic ministry led by Sunak might be established, to reduce the power and political influence of Chancellor Sajid Javid at the Treasury. Sunak was considered to be a Johnson loyalist, favoured by Dominic Cummings, and seen as the "rising star" minister who had ably represented the Prime Minister during the 2019 election debates.[36][37] By February 2020, it was reported by The Guardian that Javid would remain in his role as Chancellor and that Sunak would stay on as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, in order for the Prime Minister's Chief Adviser, Cummings, to "keep an eye" on Javid.[38]

Sunak was promoted to Chancellor of the Exchequer on 13 February 2020 as part of a cabinet reshuffle, after the resignation of his predecessor, Chancellor Javid, on the same day.[39][40] Javid had resigned as Chancellor of the Exchequer following a meeting with Prime Minister Johnson. During the meeting, Johnson had offered to keep his position on the condition that he dismiss all of his advisers at the Treasury, to be replaced with individuals selected by Cummings. Upon resigning, Javid told the Press Association that "no self-respecting minister would accept those terms".[40][41] Some political commentators saw Sunak's appointment as signalling the end of the Treasury's independence from Downing Street, with Robert Shrimsley, chief political commentator of the Financial Times, arguing that "good government often depends on senior ministers – and the Chancellor in particular – being able to fight bad ideas".[42]

Sunak's first budget took place on 11 March 2020.[43] This included an announcement of £30 billion of additional spending of which £12 billion was allocated for mitigation of the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.[44]

On 17 March, Sunak announced £330 billion in emergency support for businesses,[45] as well as a salary subsidy ("furlough") scheme for employees. This was the first time a British government had created such an employee retention scheme.[46][47] The scheme was announced on 20 March 2020 as providing grants to employers to pay 80% of a staff wage and employment costs each month, up to a total of £2,500 per person per month.[48] The cost has been estimated at £14 billion a month to run.[49]

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) initially ran for three months and was backdated to 1 March. Following a three-week extension of the countrywide lockdown the scheme was extended by Sunak until the end of June 2020.[50][51] At the end of May, Sunak extended the scheme until the end of October 2020. The decision to extend the job retention scheme was made to avoid or defer mass redundancies, company bankruptcies and potential unemployment levels not seen since the 1930s.[52] After a second lockdown in England was announced on 31 October 2020, a further extension was announced until 2 December 2020,[53] this was followed on 5 November 2020 by a lengthy extension until 31 March 2021.[54] A further extension until 30 April 2021 was announced by Sunak on 17 December 2020.[55]

Following changes to the scheme at the end of May, the director of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium said that being asked to pay wages when businesses had not been trading was an added pressure. While the Federation of Small Businesses were surprised that the Chancellor had announced a tapering of the scheme when ending it.[56] Northern Ireland's economy minister Diane Dodds said that changes to the scheme could be very difficult for some sectors uncertain about when they can reopen, particularly in the hospitality and retail sector, whilst finance minister Conor Murphy said that it was too early in the economic recovery.[57] By 15 August 80,433 firms had returned £215,756,121 that had been claimed under the scheme. Other companies had claimed smaller amounts of grant cash on the next instalment to compensate for any over payment. HMRC officials believed that £3.5 billion may have been paid out in error or to fraudsters. [58]

In July, he unveiled a plan for a further £30 billion of spending which included a stamp duty holiday, a cut to VAT for the hospitality sector, the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, and a job retention bonus for employers.[59][60] Eat Out to Help Out was announced to support and create jobs in the hospitality industry. The government subsidised food and soft drinks at participating cafes, pubs and restaurants at 50%, up to £10 per person. The offer was available from 3 to 31 August on Monday to Wednesday each week.[61] In total, the scheme subsidised £849 million in meals.[62] Some consider the scheme to be a success in boosting the hospitality industry,[63] however others disagree.[64] In terms of the COVID-19 pandemic, a study at the University of Warwick found that the scheme contributed to a rise in COVID-19 infections.[65]

As the pandemic generated a financial impact, Chancellor Sunak's measures received criticism as some workers were unable to qualify for the Treasury's income support measures. The acting leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Ed Davey, said that people were being unfairly "hung out to dry", with "their dream jobs turning into nightmares" after hundreds of MPs contacted the Chancellor.[66] The Institute for Employment Studies estimated that 100,000 people could not be eligible for any type of government help as they started a new job to too late to be included on the job retention scheme. While UKHospitality informed the Treasury Select Committee that between 350,000 and 500,000 workers in its sector were not eligible.[67][68]

In an Ipsos MORI poll in September 2020, Sunak had the highest satisfaction score of any British Chancellor since Labour's Denis Healey in April 1978.[69]

It was reported that Sunak would announce the heaviest public borrowing since the Second World War with spending as a result of the pandemic expected to exceed £200 billion.[70]