LONDON, England (NBC) – A new British prime minister has been selected.
Former finance minister Rishi Sunak will take over the ruling Conservative Party after Liz Truss resigned just 44 days after taking office.
The 42-year-old Sunak will be the first British Asian to assume the duties of the prime minister.
His victory was confirmed Monday morning when Graham Brady, the Conservative lawmaker who oversees the party’s leadership elections, informed his colleagues saying, “Rishi Sunak is therefore elected as leader of the Conservative Party,”
The other leading candidate, Penny Mordaunt, also announced Monday morning that she had withdrawn her candidacy and was giving her full support to Sunak. And he’ll need it. Sunak will take over leadership of a country that is currently in political and economic turmoil which led to Boris Johnson’s and Liz Truss’ ouster from Number 10 Downing Street over the last seven weeks.
Sunak will now be invited to form a government by King Charles III, a ceremonial duty the country’s new monarch will carry out for the first time.
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