‘LET THE DIWALI CELEBRASIANS BEGIN’
BRITISH ASIANS CHEER SUNAK’S APPOINTMENT DESPITE THE CHALLENGES HE FACES
BRITAIN’S first south Asian prime minister, who became the Conservative party leader on Diwali day (24), has vowed to unite the country and his riven party.
Speaking on the steps of Number 10, Downing Street, Rishi Sunak, a practising Hindu, told the country he would be a compassionate Conservative.
Indians all over the world took to social media, calling his anointment a “Diwali gift” and a celebration of “75 years of independence from British colonial rule”.
Media commentators acknowledged that his achievement of claiming the highest political office in the UK smashed the “racial glass ceiling to smithereens”.
At 42, Sunak became the youngest postcolonial prime minister. He did so after being elected just seven years ago (2015) from the Richmond constituency in Yorkshire when William, now Lord Hague, stepped down.
On Tuesday (25) he addressed the country in a serious tone.
“Right now, our country is facing a profound economic crisis,” he said. “The aftermath of Covid still lingers. Putin’s war in Ukraine has destabilised energy markets and supply chains the world over.
“I fully appreciate how hard things are and I understand too I have work to do to restore trust after all that has happened.
“All I can say is that I am not daunted. I know the high office I have accepted, and I hope to live up to its demands.”
South Asian parliamentarians, former party chairs and commentators have been quick to hail Sunak’s achievement.
“It is the biggest Diwali present given by an Indian to not only the United Kingdom, but also the 1.5 billion Indians settled worldwide,” Lord Rami Ranger, founder of Sun Mark Ltd and Tory peer, told Eastern Eye. “It will boost their selfesteem and respect that they have the ability and the knowledge to win the highest office of any country.
“He will be one of the most effective prime ministers in the most challenging
circumstances facing the nation. We have a Ukraine crisis, we have escalating food prices, escalating fuel prices, the party is destroyed,” he said.
“The country needs to be united, and the economy has to be turned around to make people feel that they are being looked after.”
The former chancellor beat off his main challenger Penny Mordaunt, who dramatically pulled out of the race at the last moment.
The only other possible contender, exprime minister, Boris Johnson, ruled himself out last Sunday (23) evening. He claimed he had “cleared the very high hurdle of 102 nominations” but concluded “this is simply not the right time”.
Other parliamentarians described the achievement as “momentous”, “unbelievable”, and that they did not “expect an Asian prime minister in my lifetime”.
The director of think-tank British Future, Sunder Katwala said, “The appointment of Rishi Sunak as Britain’s first Asian prime minister is an historic moment for the UK.
“His achievement will be a source of pride to many British Asians, particularly older generations, and demonstrates to all of the UK that ethnicity or faith are no barrier to attaining Britain’s highest public office.
“Sunak’s fellow Hindus marking Diwali will see this as a reason for added celebration. As chancellor, he said that lighting ceremonial candles on the steps of Downing Street was a special moment. “Now he will do so as prime minister.” In 2014, the former prime minister, David Cameron, told the GG2 Leadership and Diversity Awards, run by Eastern Eye’s parent company, the Asian Media Group (AMG), that “one day I want to hear that title prime minister followed by a British Asian name”.
Lord Andrew Feldman was chairman of the party between 2010 and 2016. He told Eastern Eye that neither Cameron nor he expected a south Asian prime minister in Downing Street so soon.
The peer realised few south Asians were joining the party despite having similar values of fiscal responsibility, hard work and loyalty to family.
“When I asked my friend, [Lord] Dolar Popat, why that was the case, he explained to me that the problem was not one of ideology but of engagement.
“So, with that in mind, and with the support of David Cameron, we set about a program of extensive engagement with the Asian communities.
“We actively encouraged applications from British Asians to the candidates list and supported them through the process.
“I also remember taking particular pride in the fact that a rising young star, Rishi Sunak, was selected to replace William Hague in Richmond, Yorkshire, at that time the safest Conservative seat in the country.
“How appropriate that his appointment coincides with the festival of Diwali, one of the greatest festivals in the Hindu faith. I hope he is able to find some time to celebrate the festival as he embarks on his momentous premiership.”
The new prime minister admitted the previous Tory administration had made mistake, which he would have to fix.
“I will place economic stability and confidence at the heart of this government’s agenda,” Sunak said. “This will mean difficult decisions to come.
“But you saw me during Covid doing everything I could to protect people and businesses with schemes like furlough.
“There are always limits, more so now than ever.
“But I promise you this, I will bring that same compassion to the challenges we face today.
“The government I lead will not leave the next generation, your children and grandchildren, with a debt that we were too weak to pay ourselves.”
Sunak promised to “work day in day out to deliver”, and his government would have “integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level”.
“When the opportunity to serve comes along, you cannot question the moment, only your willingness,” he continued.
“So, I stand here before you ready to lead our country into the future. To put your needs above politics, to reach out and build a government that represents the very best traditions of my party.
“Together, we can achieve incredible things. We will create a future worthy of the sacrifices so many have made and fill tomorrow, and every day thereafter, with hope,” he said.
Even Labour’s London mayor recognised Sunak’s achievement. “Politics aside,” tweeted Sadiq Khan on Monday. “I want to congratulate Rishi Sunak on making history today as Conservative leader and soon to be prime minister.”
The fact that Sunak won on Diwali day (24), was not lost on some parliamentary colleagues. One senior south Asian Tory told Eastern Eye, “This is as significant as the UK electing its first female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher.
“She obviously won an election, and although this was not an election, he has come through a process.
“To be the first person of colour to become the prime minister, and for it to happen on Diwali day is truly a truly historic and auspicious day.”
The 1992 Committee rules meant that anyone wishing to stand had to have at least 100 MPs backing them.
Once Johnson declared he was not running last Sunday (23) evening, influential ministers and other so-called “big beasts” of the party backed Sunak.
This left his remaining opponent, Mordaunt, tweeting two minutes before the 2pm deadline that she would be dropping out of the contest. According to the BBC, she had 26 publicly declared backers.
“I’ve said this time and time again, the great thing is the party understood it needed to change and embrace diversity,” said Baroness Sandy Verma, who was at the House of Lords while the result was being announced.
“What it’s managed to do over the past two decades is to demonstrate that very good people can get very good roles in government. That’s a testimony to the way the party has moved forward.”
Some south Asians still believe the Tories are the racist and nasty party. But Conservative parliamentarians reminded Eastern Eye that theirs was the only one which has elected three female prime ministers, and now the first leader of colour, something Labour has failed to do.
“Today, I have an opportunity to see somebody from the south Asian communities as prime minister,” said Verma.
“The biggest thing is not his ethnicity but his ability, and his ability is way, way above most people’s because he is calm, he’s got a real good grounding of what needs to be done, and being a former chancellor, he understands what the books are telling him.
“So, while it’s great to say, we’ve got somebody from the south Asian communities, actually, we’ve got the most competent person who can take this country and put it back into the position of economic growth where we need it to be.”
However, the new prime minister has a basketful of headaches.
Sunak will need to tackle an ailing economy, a weak pound, high inflation, climbing interest rates, soaring energy bills and a cost-of-living crisis.
On top of that, said south Asian parliamentarians, he needs to fix a broken Conservative party that is heading for election defeat in two years.
“He must bring in talent, not his friends,” said Lord Ranger. “He’s running a country, not his family, so he must make his cabinet stronger. This is where Liz Truss went wrong, and we must never repeat the mistake of the past.
“He has experience that you get when people oppose you. You can’t just sideline them because if you do, they will cause you more grief because they have nothing to lose. We have to get talent and not just cronies.”
It will be about the economy, Lord Popat told Eastern Eye.
“Rishi will be committed to fiscal responsibility,” the peer said.
“Economic responsibility is really the foundation of his political belief.
“I’m convinced that he will lead our country as a caring Conservative because he’s pretty much from the liberal centre ground, a forward-looking person like David Cameron.
“Politics is about ideas, and innovations will come, just as they came with Cameron and [George] Osborne during that premiership.”
Apart from the economy, one of Sunak’s biggest problems will be uniting a fractured party hellbent on destroying itself, said one unnamed Westminster source. They questioned why the party even contemplated bringing back Johnson, describing it as “a kamikaze, self-indulgent, ego-driven move”.
“It’s not just between left and right of the Conservative moderates,” they said.
“It’s between all sorts of different viewpoints on either Brexit, or the approach to cutting taxes or cultural identity.
“There are many dimensions where there are diverging views, and I think Rishi’s gonna have to use his skills, and not just think it’s just a matter of diplomacy.
“He must show leadership that he’s gonna make decisions that are in the best interest of the country, and then international interests, based on evidence, not on ideology.”
Another parliamentarian told Eastern Eye that Sunak would have to deal with the other nations in the United Kingdom.
“There are people who represent different viewpoints in different parts of the country,” they explained. “There are obviously people from Wales and Scotland who represent the Conservative party, although not a lot.
“But those are regions where the Conservatives have got work to do, and that’s not forgetting the differences between rural areas and urban areas, from northern towns to southern hamlets, it’s a pretty diverse country.
“You need to be able to create a big tent where everybody feels welcome, and everybody feels they’ve got a seat at the table, and their viewpoint is being heard.
“At the same time, it shouldn’t become a barrier to making sound and sensible decisions, just because there are lots of voices at the table.”
What the new prime minister must do, said another anonymous senior Westminster source, is to manage expectations.
“I hope people will be fair-minded,” they said.
“I would have to say in my experience, that is one thing that most of the British people are, fair minded.
“Everyone realises his inheritance is very challenging.
“We’re already arguably in a recession, we already have high inflation, we already have rising interest rates.
“So, his sort of challenge is to turn all of that around, and it would take a miracle to turn it around completely.
“But if you can demonstrate making real progress, we may be able to go to the country and say, ‘the plan is working, and let Rishi finish the job’.”
Another south Asian parliamentarian said that Sunak would have a brief honeymoon period, but he would have to prove his worth.
“People are crying out for leadership, and we haven’t had proper leadership, the sort people want, since the end of the pandemic,” they said.
“Rishi must work diligently and remain honest with the British people and take them on the journey together, protecting the most vulnerable in society.”
But others are more optimistic, and
they are certain Sunak will succeed, turn around the economy and lead them into a general election victory.
“I’m not concerned at all, because he can turn the economy around,” said Lord Ranger. “The economy is the litmus test of popularity, where people will judge him for what he has achieved and what he has delivered to the nation.
“The best thing is, under Rishi’s watch, there will be a free trade deal between UK and India. With 1.4 billion people and a huge market which is growing at the rate of six to seven per cent per annum, it would be the mother of all free trade agreements between two of the biggest economies in the world.
“That growth is significant, because it is a big economy, not a small island or small country.
“Rishi being of Indian origin will have more empathy, more love, more respect for this country, and they will give him a lot more respect.”
But racism continues to be a problem in Britain.
One caller to Sangita Myska’s show on LBC over the weekend, Jeremy from Lowestoft in Suffolk, made clear that he did not believe Sunak could be English or patriotic. The caller, who said he was a Tory party member, insisted that Johnson was English, even though he was born in New York, and is thought to have Turkish heritage among others.
It prompted outrage from Nirj Deva, the first post-colonial Tory MP of colour. “I have held my silence for far too long,” tweeted the former MP and MEP.
“As the first post-empire BAME immigrant Conservative MP, I went through hell to get there.
“In 80-plus seat selections, the killer question was ‘you have an excellent CV but what are your local roots?’”
Speaking to Eastern Eye, Deva said he would not expel Jeremy until he had spoken to him to explain why he was wrong.
“I would recommend we explain to Jeremy that life has changed, and that these values are not supportable and give him the choice and say if he wants to continue to believe these things, then he should leave the party voluntarily.”
Lord Ranger offered a more robust response to the caller’s comments.
“What would I say to bigoted men?” he began. “That twice in the First and Second World Wars, over a million strong Indian soldiers came to defend the king and empire. They should know that hundreds of thousands died, hundreds of thousands of people were injured.
“They will not tell you that, which make them hypocrites and ungrateful to those who shed their blood for their freedom. So, grow up and live in the 21st century. They bring disgrace, and they do not bring anything good to the party.”
Sunak will also face pressure from south Asian communities, said sources, because they will expect him to tackle institutional, structural and systemic racial inequalities.
“In terms of areas that relate to social and racial justice, he is going to have to calculate the way to tackle these problem areas,” they said.
“He must see whether he can systematically remove the barriers and get to the root causes of the disparities.
“So, it may be that it isn’t a south Asian problem,” they said.
“For example, it is increasingly evident that white working-class families are disadvantaged in the education system.
“He [Sunak] must unify the country and make sure that he carries people with him, and he will need to demonstrate that he is tackling all these issues for the entire population.”
Conservative parliamentarians and other sources have told Eastern Eye that ultimately Sunak will be judged on what he delivers for as long as he is prime minister. of the country
“Most of the public will rightly say that Sunak’s faith or ethnicity should not be an issue,” said Katwala.
“They will judge him on his policies and his performance, at this extraordinarily difficult time to take office, rather than on his background.
“But we should not overlook the significance of this moment for our society.
“When Sunak was born in Southampton in 1980, there had been no Asian or black MPs at all in the post-war era.
“Now we see Britain’s diversity reflected at the very top of British politics.”