RISING Tory star Rishi Sunak has today been named as the new Chancellor by Boris Johnson.
The 39-year-old’s appointment makes him one of the youngest to hold the position as the PM announced his dramatic Cabinet reshuffle.
But who is Rishi Sunak?
Sunak is the son of Yashvir, a doctor, and Usha, a pharmacist, who moved to the UK from Punjab, India in the 1960s.
Born in 1980 in Southampton, Hampshire, heattended the prestigious Winchester College before going on to study Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University.
He also earned an MBA from Stanford University in the US, becoming a Fulbright scholar.
Before entering politics he worked for investment bank Goldman Sachs and a hedge fund, then co-founded an investment firm.
Seen as a rising star in the Conservative Party, he has been touted for the top since first arriving in Parliament five years ago.
However at the age of 39, he misses out on being the youngest chancellor of the past century by just a single year – George Osborne was 38 when he took charge of the Treasury in 2010.
And before his rise to Chancellor, Tory officials saw he was the “perfect fit” for Johnson’s new Cabinet.
One told the Financial Times: “Rishi is a superstar, he keeps to the line and proved himself to be a calm, able debater
In 2009, he married Akshata Murthy, the daughter of Indian billionaire Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy, who co-founded business consulting firm Infosys.
The couple have two daughters together.
The Southampton-raised Cabinet minister lists his hobbies as keeping fit, playing cricket and football and watching films.
He was pictured heading to the cinemas to see Star Wars – with none other but outgoing Chancellor Sajid Javid.
As a Hindu, he takes his Commons oath on the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Sanskrit text.
