UK’s New Prime Minister; Rishi Sunak Unveils Top Team

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak took charge on Tuesday (October 24) after British monarch; King Charles III appointed him as the country’s prime minister, making him the first person of colour to lead the former imperial power.

During his first address in Downing Street after becoming the PM, Sunak said that the country faced a “profound economic crisis” and he promised to fix the errors made by his predecessor Liz Truss.

Sunak said while speaking on the steps of Downing Street: “I will place economic stability and confidence at the heart of this government’s agenda. This will mean difficult decisions to come. But you saw me during Covid doing everything I could to protect people and business with schemes like furlough.”

Several Tory MPs handed in their resignations amid the cabinet reshuffle.

Amid a massive economic crisis in the country, Sunak kept the finance minister Jeremy Hunt in the crucial post. His predecessor Liz Truss appointed Hunt just 11 days ago.

The first British-Indian prime minister has made his close ally Dominic Raab deputy PM and justice secretary.

Meanwhile, Suella Braverman is back as interior minister in Sunak’s new UK cabinet. Recently, the hardline right-winger Braverman was forced out of Truss’s cabinet.

Grant Shapps, who had briefly replaced Braverman at the Home Office, was named business secretary with partial oversight of climate policy, instead of Johnson loyalist Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Meanwhile, Ben Wallace has been retained as the defense secretary. Sunak has also retained James Cleverly as foreign secretary. Notably, both Wallace and Cleverly backed an aborted comeback by the former leader Boris Johnson.

Here is a list of all the Tory MPs who have quit:

1. Jacob Rees-Mogg as Business Secretary
2. Brandon Lewis as Justice Secretary
3. Wendy Morton as Chief Whip
4. Chloe Smith as Works and Pensions Secretary
5. Vicky Ford as Minister of State for Development
6. Kit Malthouse as Education Secretary
7. Robert Buckland as Secretary of State for Wales
8. Ranil Jayawardena as Environment Secretary
9. Simon Clarke as Levelling up Secretary
10. Jake Berry as Conservative Party Chairman (with no portfolio)