‘Indian son rises over empire. History comes full circle in Britain’, read the headline on India’s NDTV early morning news bulletin, indicating the fascination there and across much of the world that the UK, a country still struggling to find a post imperial role, should choose someone of British Asian origin as its latest Prime Minister.
In reality, Rishi Sunak’s appointment had nothing to do with his ethnicity. Instead, his election by parliamentary members of his own party rather than the Conservative party’s aging and often right-wing membership reflected the need for someone pragmatic, intellectual, and market aware, with the integrity to address the profound economic crisis now facing Britain. That is to say, an individual who might also bring together a hopelessly divided party, following an extraordinary period of political chaos and internecine political warfare.