Indian-origin Rishi Sunak, who will take over as Britain's prime minister from Liz Truss, on Monday promised 'stability and unity' as his priority.
Rishi Sunak on Monday is all set to make history on Diwali as Britain's first Indian-origin prime minister after being elected unopposed as the new leader of the governing Conservative Party, following Penny Mordaunt's withdrawal from the race.
Rishi Sunak, who is set to be Britain's first Indian-origin prime minister, recently said that he wants to change the United Kingdom-India relationship to make it a more two-way exchange that opens up easy access to UK students and companies in India.
With the former prime minister stepping aside on Sunday night saying it was "simply not the right time" for his comeback, the prospect of a Diwali victory for Sunak cannot be ruled out.
Her intervention comes just days after her dramatic exit from Cabinet over a breach of the ministerial code and a scathing attack on Truss' leadership.
While Sunak has maintained a dignified silence over the recent crisis, his supporters have not lost any opportunity to point out how the former finance minister had got the economic forecasts right.
In an accompanying vision statement, the former finance minister highlighted his track record of serving in the Cabinet, helping to steer the economy through the toughest of times with the COVID pandemic.
The 42-year-old frontrunner's tally continues to grow as former prime minister Boris Johnson flies back from his Caribbean holiday to reportedly also join the contest.
The 42-year-old is holding a solid 55 per cent lead with the Oddschecker betting odds aggregator, followed by a 29 per cent chance of former prime minister Boris Johnson making a comeback. Third placed in what is emerging as a three-way contest is Leader of the Commons Penny Mordaunt, who had polled third in the first round of parliamentary votes to shortlist candidates for the last leadership race.
"I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected," she said speaking outside Downing Street.
Britain's third female prime Minister, Liz Truss, was out of office on Thursday after the shortest tenure at 10 Downing Street in London and without a cherished India-UK free trade agreement (FTA) under her belt as a Brexit prize.
"I have made a mistake; I accept responsibility; I resign," the 42-year-old barrister said.
The free trade agreement (FTA) talks with India are no longer working towards a Diwali deadline though negotiations are progressing well, UK Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch has said as New Delhi expressed confidence on Friday of an "early date" for a mutually beneficial deal. "There are ongoing negotiations as we know on the FTA. There is interest on both sides to see if we can work towards a deal, an FTA, that is beneficial to both the countries at an early date," external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told reporters in New Delhi. It came as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke to his UK counterpart, James Cleverly, and referenced the Roadmap 2030 bilateral agreement signed between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former UK PM Boris Johnson in May last year, with no specific reference to the FTA.
The poll found that among those who voted for the Conservatives at the last election, 62 per cent said that party members had made the wrong choice when the race was shortlisted between Truss and Sunak.
The high court in London on Tuesday began hearing evidence from two leading experts in the field of psychiatry to determine the level of suicide risk faced by Nirav Modi if he is extradited to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering, amounting to an estimated $2 billion in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan scam case. Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay heard from Andrew Forrester, Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Cardiff University, and Seena Fazel, Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Oxford University, in the final stages of the extradition appeal being pursued by the 51-year-old diamond merchant. The two psychiatrists weighed up Nirav's level of depression, which could pose a "substantial" or "elevated" risk of suicide.
Labour Leader Keir Starmer told a gathering of hundreds of British Indians that he was determined to put an end to 'divisive politics' and extremist elements exploiting social media to spread hatred within communities.
In a joint appeal on Saturday, the community leaders and local politicians from the eastern England region described Leicester as a great place to live and work and called for solutions to the 'hate-filled violence.'
UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman has met with local police officers and Hindu and Muslim community leaders in Leicester and assured them that thugs behind the recent violent clashes would face the full force of the law.
Videos of Tuesday's protest outside Durga Bhawan temple on Spon Lane in Smethwick area of the West Midlands city were circulating on social media overnight, with groups of masked men seen shouting and hurling items. Police officers could be seen holding and pulling some of these masked men trying to scale the temple fence.
Leicestershire police said a 20-year-old man has been sentenced to 10 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon during clashes in the city.
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