London:

Former British prime minister Rishi Sunak spent the weekend calling the Conservative Party candidates who lost their seats in the general election last week to apologise for the party’s worst performance at the ballot box, with just 121 seats in the House of Commons.

Several former members of Parliament told ‘The Daily Telegraph’ about the “very sympathetic call” they received from the British Indian MP, who won his own seat of Richmond and Northallerton in Yorkshire and remains the Leader of the Opposition until the Tories elect his successor.

The 44-year-old had apologised to his party colleagues and the nation in his farewell speech at 10 Downing Street on Friday, when he also announced his resignation as Tory leader after the Labour Party won a landslide victory with 411 MPs in a 650-seat Commons.

“He took the time to ring me on a Saturday night and I think he’s taken the time to ring other MPs. He was ringing to say that he was incredibly sorry that I’d lost my seat,” an unseated Tory MP was quoted as saying.

“To all the Conservative candidates and campaigners who worked tirelessly but without success, I am sorry that we could not deliver what your efforts deserved,” Sunak said in his speech last week.

Frontrunners to replace him as party leader are working behind-the-scenes to shore up their support. Former home secretary Suella Braverman, who has been openly critical of Sunak’s leadership, is among the contenders but her campaign received an early blow as one of her supporters switched loyalties to her former home office colleague, Robert Jenrick.

Others lining up for the race include two more former home secretaries Priti Patel and James Cleverly and former business secretary Kemi Badenoch. Further former ministers from the Sunak Cabinet, Victoria Atkins and Tom Tugendhat, are also likely to throw their hat in the ring when the contours of the contest are devised by the party’s 1922 Committee – which will be electing its new chair after the election.

Meanwhile, the new Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, spent his first weekend in office travelling to different parts of the United Kingdom starting with Scotland. He will then embark on his first foreign visit as PM for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) meeting in Washington to set the tone for his Labour government’s relations with US President Joe Biden’s administration and other international allies.

On Saturday, he spoke to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the leaders agreed to meet at the “earliest opportunity”.

“Discussing the Free Trade Agreement, the prime minister said he stood ready to conclude a deal that worked for both sides. The leaders hoped to meet at the earliest opportunity,” a Downing Street spokesperson said about the call.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi extended commiserations to the UK’s Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak on the party’s recent electoral washout, saying victories and setbacks are inevitable parts of democracy and that “we must take both in our stride”.

In his letter to Mr Sunak, Rahul Gandhi hailed the former British PM’s dedication to public service and commitment to the British people.

“I would like to extend my commiserations on the recent electoral outcome. Victories and setbacks are both an inevitable part of the journey in a democracy and we must take both in our stride,” the Congress MP said.

“Your dedication to public service and commitment to your people are commendable. I also deeply value the efforts you made to strengthen the ties between India and the UK during your term in office. I am confident you will continue to contribute to public life with your… pic.twitter.com/NNAsGQV7Jh

— Congress (@INCIndia) July 6, 2024

“Your dedication to public service and commitment to your people are commendable. I also deeply value the efforts you made to strengthen the ties between India and the UK during your term in office,” he said.

Mr Gandhi expressed confidence that Rishi Sunak would continue to contribute to public life with his experience. “I wish you all the best for your future endeavours,” the former Congress chief said.

On Friday, Keir Starmer became the UK’s new Prime Minister and vowed to rebuild Britain, hours after his Labour Party secured a landslide victory in a general election in which the weary voters inflicted a “sobering verdict” on Rishi Sunak-led Conservatives.

The Labour Party secured 412 seats in the 650-member House of Commons, up 211 from the 2019 elections.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Britain’s Conservative Party, thrashed by Labour at the general election, on Saturday faced the task of rebuilding as leading right wingers warned it could face extinction unless it starts listening to its core voters.

A record number of ex-prime minister Rishi Sunak’s top team and other prominent Tories lost their seats in Thursday’s electoral drubbing.

The anti-immigration Reform UK party led by Brexit firebrand Nigel Farage maximised the damage by splitting the right-wing vote and picking up former Tory supporters in key constituencies.

Even before campaigning had ended, one ex-minister had launched an excoriating attack on the party for not grasping that “our failure to unite the right would destroy us”.

Former interior minister Suella Braverman, seen as a leadership contender, correctly predicted the Tories would haemorrhage votes to Reform.

“Why? Because we failed to cut immigration or tax or deal with the net-zero and woke policies we have presided over for 14 years,” she wrote in the Daily Telegraph.

Conceding inevitable defeat, she called for a “searingly honest post-match analysis”, adding that it would “decide whether our party continues to exist at all”.

Major British political parties have seen dramatic downturns in their fortunes before.

In the years after World War I, a divided Liberal Party found itself supplanted by the Labour Party as the main opposition.

The party of 19th century political giant William Gladstone and World War I leader David Lloyd George never again regained its earlier status as a party of government.

‘New movement’

Other senior party voices to deliver an early diagnosis of the Conservatives’ current predicament included David Frost, chief Brexit negotiator under ex-PM Boris Johnson.

David Frost resigned from government in December 2021, citing Johnson’s tax hikes and net zero commitments among other complaints.

To revive traditional Conservative values and electability “after the cataclysm”, he called for the creation of a “new movement for “reformed conservatism”.

Sunak has said he will stay on as party leader until arrangements are put in place to choose a successor amid fears the party will now descend into bitter infighting.

Potential leadership candidates who managed to hang on to their seats include former home secretaries Braverman and Priti Patel. Former finance minister Jeremy Hunt became the first to rule himself out on Saturday telling GB News that “the time had passed”.

“There’s going to be a very immediate issue around how to relate to Nigel Farage,” Michael Kenny, director of the Bennett Institue for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, told AFP.

He said there would be a push to find a leadership candidate who could unite the party but “not provide an opening to Farage”.

Others may look for someone potentially “more open to the idea of fusing with Reform”.

Kenny said what had been unusual about this election was the way the “battle for the soul of the party” had been started before a single vote was cast.

With the Conservatives scoring a record low of just 121 seats, handing Starmer’s government a majority in parliament of more than 170, some have predicted Labour could be in power for a generation.

‘Civil war’

However, Philip Cowley, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, cautioned against too much pessimism.

He said people had been “writing off” one or more of the main parties ever since the early 1960s, when it was claimed demographics meant Labour could never win again “only for them to do so in 1964”, he told AFP.

In 1992, after the Conservatives won their fourth consecutive victory, there was again “lots of talk about how Britain was now a one-party state, only for Labour to go on to win their greatest ever landslide five years later”, Cowley added.

More recently, he noted, commentators suggested the Conservatives could never win again during the tenures of former Labour leaders Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

“And yet they did,” in 2010 with David Cameron.

London School of Economics political expert Tony Travers said the Conservative Party was the “world’s most durable political party” in many ways but that the result was still a “disaster”.

While “not a massive amount of difference” stood between Labour and the Conservatives on many policies, Labour had managed to look more centrist and moderate to the electorate, he added.

And divisions that had beset the party could prove a major obstacle to reinventing itself, Travers said.

“They were split after Brexit… there’s a civil war going on all the time, which is going to make their life difficult in the coming parliament.”

Offering his own analysis in the Daily Mail on Saturday, Tory ex-prime minister Boris Johnson highlighted that Labour’s landslide majority was built on fewer votes than it secured in 2019 when the Conservatives under Johnson won an 80-seat majority.

“We are capable of endless regeneration,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The Rwanda plan was one of the showcase policies of former Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to try to curb migrants from making dangerous English Channel crossings.. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on July 6 that he is scrapping a controversial Conservative policy to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda.

“The Rwanda scheme was dead and buried before it started,” Mr. Starmer said in his first news conference. “It’s never acted as a deterrent. Almost the opposite.” The move was one of Mr. Starmer’s first acts in office, though it was widely expected. He had said during his campaign that he would ditch the plan that has cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but never taken flight.

Also read: Explained | Why has densely populated Rwanda agreed to the U.K.’s plan to deport migrants?

Mr. Starmer made the announcement after holding his first Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing St., the day after his Labour Party’s landslide victory overturned 14 years of Conservative rule.

The Rwanda plan was one of the showcase policies of former Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to try to curb migrants from making dangerous English Channel crossings.

But it was beset with challenges over human rights issues and never managed to deport a single person despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars in a pact with the east African nation.

Suella Braverman, a Conservative hard liner on immigration who is a possible contender to replace Mr. Sunak as party leader, was critical of Mr. Starmer’s anticipated plan to end the Rwanda deal.

“Years of hard work, acts of Parliament, millions of pounds been spent on a scheme which had it been delivered properly would have worked,” she said Saturday before he made the announcement.

As the Labour party swept the U.K. general elections, the number of Indian-origin Members of Parliament increased from 15 in the previous Conservative government to 26 — the highest number of British-Indian members.

Overall, 107 British-Indians contested the elections. Here are some prominent candidates and how they fared in the elections.

Also read: U.K. General Election 2024 highlights: Landslide win for Labour; Keir Starmer appointed new PM

Rishi Sunak

Rishi Sunak, the outgoing Prime Minister of U.K., is arguably the most renowned Indian-origin political leader in the country in the current political arena. He contested the 2024 election from the Richmond and Northallerton constituency in northern England. 

Mr. Sunak was also the first Indian-origin Prime Minister of the U.K. He was born in 1980 in Southampton on England’s south coast to parents of Indian descent who were both born in East Africa.

His wife Akshata Murthy is an Indian citizen and is the daughter of Infosys co-founder Narayan Murthy. 

Among his most controversial plans was his anti-migration stance. Earlier this year, he had vowed to begin forcibly removing migrants with failed asylum claims to Rwanda starting in July in a bid to deter migrants from crossing the English Channel on boats to enter the U.K. 

Shivani Raja

Shivani Raja is the British-Indian Conservative winner from Leicester East. She is a first-generation British citizen and was born to parents who came to Leicester from Kenya and India in the late 1970s. Her policies are in line with those of Mr. Sunak’s and the larger Conservative Party, including tougher immigration controls. 

Rajesh Agrawal

Labour Party’s Rajesh Agrawal lost to Conservative candidate Shivani Raja in Leicester East. Mr. Agrawal was born in Madhya Pradesh and grew up in India, and is the former Deputy Mayor of London for Business.

Mr. Agrawal campaigned on the issues of unemployment and low wages in light of the rising cost of living. Leicester is home to many British Indians and immigrants

Kanishka Narayan

Kanishka Narayan of Labour Party won the Vale of Glamorgan constituency in Wales. He was born in Bihar, India, and moved to Cardiff with his parents at 12. He studied at Oxford and Stanford universities, and has previously worked in public policy. 

Suella Braverman

Suella Braverman was the former Home Secretary to Rishi Sunak before she was fired for defying her boss in November 2023. She was born to Indian-origin parents who emigrated to the U.K. from Africa in the 1960s. In the 2024 election, she won the Fareham and Waterlooville constituency.

Ms. Braverman has been active in the Conservative party from her days as an undergraduate student at the University of Cambridge. She campaigned for the country to leave the EU during the Brexit referendum. Despite being from a family of immigrants, she is known for her hardline views against immigration, and has previously vowed to reduce the annual inflow into the U.K. to “tens of thousands”. 

Abbas Merali

Abbas Merali was a candidate from Harrow West in the U.K. parliamentary election, representing the Conservative and Unionist Party. He was defeated by Labour Party candidate Gareth Thomas. 

Navendu Mishra

Navendu Mishra, Labour Party candidate from Stockport constituency, won the 2024 U.K. parliamentary election and held on to his seat. His parents are from Uttar Pradesh.

Prior to entering politics, Mr. Mishra was a shop-floor trade unionist in Stockport, before becoming an organiser for Unison and helping to organise care workers in precarious employment.

Preet Kaur Gill

Preet Kaur Gill won the Birmingham Edgbaston constituency as a Labour Party candidate in the 2024 U.K. general election. She became U.K.’s first female Sikh MP in 2017. She was born to parents of Indian-origin in the U.K., and was the Shadow Minister for Primary Care and Public Health before the election. 

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, popularly called Tan Dhesi, is a U.K. politician of Indian origin who has been elected as the winner in Slough constituency. He is a Labour Party member.

Mr. Dhesi was born in Berkshire, but completed most of his primary education in Punjab, India, before returning to the U.K. at 9. In the Parliament, he was the Shadow Minister for Exports. 

Lisa Nandy

Lisa Nandy of the Labour party held on to her Wigan seat in the election — the constituency she has represented since 2010. She’s the daughter of well-known academic of Indian origin, Dipak Nandy.

In the past, she was the Labour Councillor on the Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council, and has also worked as the Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities. 

Seema Malhotra

Seema Malhotra, the Labour and Co-operative Party candidate in Feltham and Heston constituency, won the 2024 U.K. election.

Before becoming a full-time politician, Ms. Malhotra worked as a management consultant. 

Valerie Vaz

Labour party candidate Valerie Vaz won the reformed Walsall and Bloxwich constituency. She was first elected in 2010 from the Walsall South constituency, which now stands abolished.

Her younger brother Keith Vaz is also a Labour leader in the U.K. and was the longest-serving Indian-origin MP in the House of Commons when he retired in 2019 after 32 years. 

Baggy Shanker

Labour candidate Baggy Shanker won the Derby south constituency in the 2024 U.K. election. He has been a trade unionist working in the manufacturing and civil aerospace sectors for over three decades. 

Uday Nagaraj

Labour candidate Uday Nagaraju lost the North Bedfordshire constituency to Conservative and Unionist Party leader Richard Fuller by a margin of over 5,000 votes.

Mr. Nagaraju studied engineering the Nagpur University before moving to the U.K. He founded the AI Policy Labs in 2020 before venturing into politics. 

Hajira Piranie

Hajira Piranie lost the Harborough, Oadby and Wigston seat to Conservative candidate Neil O’Brien by a narrow margin of only around 2,000 votes. Her mother is from Maharashtra and her paternal grandparents are from Gujarat. 

Shama Tatler  

Shama Tatler, Labour candidate for Chingford and Woodford Green, lost to Conservative candidate Iain Duncan Smith by a little under 5,000 votes. 

Ms. Tatler is a second-generation British Indian with parents who were born in Nairobi and Mombasa. She has been a Councillor for Fryent Ward. 

Ryan Jude

Labour candidate Ryan Jude lost in Tatton constituency to the Conservative candidate by only around 1,100 votes. His parents had moved to the U.K. from India to work for the NHS. He works in environmental and climate policy.

Primesh Patel

Primesh Patel, Labour party candidate in Harrow East, lost to Conservative candidate in the constituency. He started his career in health and social care sector with NHS and worked there for 18 years. 

London:

Akshata Murty stood by her husband Rishi Sunak as he delivered his final speech outside 10 Downing Street following a crushing loss to the Labour Party in the UK elections. While the results and the Conservative Party’s future were the primary topics of discussion, social media couldn’t help but fixate on Ms Murty’s dress. 

Her red, white and blue chevron gown, identified as the 395 pound (Rs 42,000) Lina Dress from designer Omi Na Na, drew significant attention. Comments ranged from the colour scheme to the design, and even to the price tag. Although she was in the background, her outfit sparked speculation, with some wondering if her bold fashion choice – featuring the colours of the UK flag – was a tactical move to make a subtle statement amid the country’s changing political dynamics. 

“Akshata Murty’s dress is absolutely perfect for the occasion. The multi-layered symbolism is *chef’s kiss*,” a user wrote on social media platform X. 

Leaving aside the other election stuff and tribal allegiances; Akshata Murty’s dress is absolutely perfect for the occasion. The multi-layered symbolism is *chef’s kiss* pic.twitter.com/mlTf0ZxGu9

— Saran (@__Saran__) July 5, 2024

However, not all reactions were positive. Some users speculated whether the dress was a deliberate distraction from Mr Sunak’s speech. 

One user wondered, “a deliberate attempt to distract from Sunak’s speech,” while another echoed this sentiment, saying, “Akshata desperately trying to draw the attention away from her husband in her awful dress”.

It’s hurting my (tired) eyes. Is it deliberate attempt to distract from Sunak’s speech?

— Mask wearing blue bean ???? (@bluebean76) July 5, 2024

Akshata desperately trying to draw the attention away from her husband in her awful dress#GeneralElection2024pic.twitter.com/FB48bWHoof

— Charles Mossman ???????????????? #FBPE (@charles_mossman) July 5, 2024

Others appreciated the dress, calling it “pretty stylish and fun,” and “beautiful” .

Obviously good riddance to her husband, but I think Akshata’s dress was pretty stylish and fun, personally.

— Dominic Dean (@DrDominicDean) July 5, 2024

Akshata’s dress was beautiful! pic.twitter.com/AkkiWl7oyx

— Helen ???????? Reasons to be Cheerful, One, Two, Three (@errjustsaying) July 5, 2024

Someone joked that “it looked like she was disguising herself as a zebra” while another comment read, “That dress is a distress signal and cry for help” .

When I first saw it the red part wasn’t visible and it looked like she was disguising herself as a zebra.

— Contrary Mary (@ContraryMary_74) July 5, 2024

That dress is a distress signal and cry for help

— Louise Maving (@LouiseMaving1) July 5, 2024

The cost of the dress also drew attention, with a user noting, “Akshata Sunak’s dress is 395 pounds which she will no doubt never wear again. That money could feed my whole family for over a month.”

Akshata Sunak’s dress £395 which she will no doubt never wear again.
That money could feed my whole family for over a month.

— Helen Seber Bridgwood (@Knitknurse) July 5, 2024

Rishi Sunak holds the distinction of being the richest person to have served as the Prime Minister of the UK. His wife Akshata Murty adds to their financial status as the daughter of Narayana Murthy, the billionaire founder of Infosys. According to the Sunday Times’ 2024 Rich List, the couple’s combined fortune is estimated at an impressive 651 million pounds. This immense wealth makes them the wealthiest inhabitants of 10 Downing Street to date.

New Delhi:

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor took a swipe at the BJP on Friday after the Labour Party in the UK secured a landslide victory in the general elections there, saying “ab ki baar, 400 paar” finally happened but in another country.

In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, BJP leaders had predicted that the party would get more than 370 seats while the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would get over 400.

In the polls that concluded last month, the BJP won 240 seats and fell short of a majority but the NDA secured the mandate with 293 seats.

The Congress bagged 99 seats while the INDIA bloc got 234. Following the polls, two Independent MPs pledged support to the Congress, taking the INDIA bloc’s tally to 236.

In a post on X, Mr Tharoor said, “Finally ‘ab ki baar 400 paar’ happened — but in another country!”

Finally “ab ki baar 400 paar” happened — but in another country! pic.twitter.com/17CpIp9QRl

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) July 5, 2024

Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said that, amid the tectonic transition in the UK, it was worth recalling the political events that unfolded in India a month ago.

“A self-declared non-biological person did not get elected by his party MPs as their leader but instead got himself anointed as the leader of an alliance. A circumvention of all parliamentary norms, all in a vain attempt to save face after being hugely diminished and damaged after the elections, and suffering a decisive personal, political and moral defeat,” Mr Ramesh said.

On Friday, Keir Starmer became the UK’s new Prime Minister and vowed to rebuild Britain, hours after his Labour Party secured a landslide victory in a general election in which the weary voters inflicted a “sobering verdict” on Rishi Sunak-led Conservatives.

The Labour Party secured 412 seats in the 650-member House of Commons, up 211 from the 2019 elections.

Mr Sunak’s Conservatives won just 121 seats, down 250 from 2019. While the Labour had a vote share of 33.7 per cent the Conservatives had 23.7 per cent. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Britain’s outgoing Conservative Party Prime Minister Rishi Sunak looks down as he makes a short speech outside 10 Downing Street before going to see King Charles III to tender his resignation in London, Friday, July 5, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Rishi Sunak’s campaign to remain Britain’s Prime Minister showed a lack of political touch.

The Conservative Party’s problems were grave before Friday’s resounding election defeat but missteps by Britain’s richest Prime Minister contributed to its defeat.

Predecessors such as Tony Blair and Boris Johnson were more politically astute and able to connect with voters. As for Mr. Sunak, he didn’t have to call the election until Jan. 2025. He defied political advice by doing so in May — with Conservative support dwindling steadily amid an economic slump, ethics scandals and a revolving door of leaders over the last two years — and announced the July 4 date in the pouring rain.

Also Read | U.K. General Election 2024 highlights

What’s more, the Conservative Party didn’t appear ready for the campaign compared with Labour, and voters haven’t really felt the improvement in Britain’s economy yet.

“I have heard your anger, your disappointment, and I take responsibility for this loss,” Mr. Sunak said in his final speech as Prime Minister outside the residence at 10 Downing St.

Arguably, Mr. Sunak’s biggest blunder — one that prompted him to apologize and which many analysts think was the final death knell of the Conservative Party’s campaign — was his decision to leave early from the 80-year D-day commemorations in northern France on June 6.

Critics said the decision to skip the international event that closed the commemorations showed disrespect to the veterans and diminished the U.K.’s international standing. Other world leaders including President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy all were present. As was Keir Starmer, the U.K.’s new Prime Minister.

Born in 1980 in Southampton on England’s south coast to parents of Indian descent, Mr. Sunak became Britain’s first leader of color and the first Hindu to become Prime Minister. At 42, he was Britain’s youngest leader for more than 200 years.

A former hedge fund manager at Goldman Sachs who married into a billionaire Indian family, Mr. Sunak rose rapidly within Conservative ranks. Now 44, he become Treasury chief on the eve of the coronavirus pandemic. Within weeks, he had to unveil the biggest economic support package of any Chancellor of the Exchequer outside wartime, a package that many saw as saving millions of jobs.

Long a low-tax, small-state politician despite the high-spending nature of that package, Sunak had a record of idolizing former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Smooth, confident and at ease with the march of modern technology, Mr. Sunak was dubbed “Dishy Rishi” and quickly became one of the most trusted and popular faces within Johnson’s administration during the rigors of the pandemic.

Mr. Johnson was forced to quit in the summer of 2022 after being adjudged to have lied to Parliament over breaches of coronavirus lockdowns at his offices in Downing Street. As if that wasn’t bad enough, trust in the Conservatives tanked further when his successor Liz Truss backed a package of unfunded tax cuts that roiled financial markets and sent borrowing costs surging, particularly for homeowners already struggling with the most acute of cost of living crisis in decades. Her premiership was the shortest in the history of the U.K.

When Mr. Sunak replaced Ms. Truss, he pitched himself as a stable pair of hands. He constantly reminded voters that he had warned Conservative Party members about the recklessness of Ms. Truss’s economic plan when he challenged her to succeed Mr. Johnson. The day he replaced Truss after her traumatic 49-day premiership in Oct. 2022, the Conservatives were trailing Labour by around 30 percentage points.

As Treasury chief, Mr. Sunak was lauded for rolling out his COVID-19 job retention package that arguably saved millions of jobs. But that came at a cost, bringing the country’s tax burden to its highest level since the 1940s.

In his 21 months as Prime Minister, Mr. Sunak struggled to keep a lid on bitter divisions within his Conservative Party. One side wanted him to be much tougher on immigration and bolder in cutting taxes, while another urged him to move more to the center of politics, the space where, historically, British elections are won.

In his concession speech, Mr. Sunak said he would serve a full term in parliament until 2029, and that he would stay on as leader until the Conservative Party has elected a successor.

“It is important that, after 14 years in government, the Conservative Party rebuilds, but also that it takes up its crucial role in opposition professionally and effectively,” he said,

Many think he may be tempted to return to the U.S. in the years to come, perhaps to pursue his interest in artificial technology.

After his school years at Winchester College, one of Britain’s most expensive boarding schools, Mr. Sunak went to Oxford University to study politics, philosophy and economics — the degree of choice for future Prime Ministers. He then got an MBA at Stanford University, which proved to be a launchpad for his subsequent career as a hedge fund manager at Goldman Sachs in the U.S.

There, he met his wife, Akshata Murty, the daughter of the billionaire founder of Indian tech giant Infosys. They have two daughters. The couple are the wealthiest inhabitants yet of No. 10 Downing Street, according to the Sunday Times’ 2024 Rich List, with an estimated fortune of 651 million pounds ($815 million). They’re even richer than King Charles III, a level of wealth that many said left him out of touch with the daily problems of most people.

With his fortune secure, Mr. Sunak was elected to Parliament for the safe Tory seat of Richmond in Yorkshire in 2015. In Britain’s 2016 Brexit referendum, he supported leaving the European Union, a “leave” that came unexpectedly and that many Britons today regret.

Rishi Sunak lost big at the UK polls. The message was further underlined by a YouTube star who stood behind him holding up a piece of paper with a giant letter “L” on it, as the outgoing Prime Minister was delivering his speech of thanks to his constituents.

The prank, which referred to Mr Sunak as a “loser”, was claimed by YouTuber Niko Omilana. “Farewell Rishi, Hold this L,” wrote the YouTuber, who has a following of 7.49 million, on X.

farewell rishi, hold this L pic.twitter.com/qjqTIxbYSZ

— NDL Ringside (@NikoOmilana) July 5, 2024

i did it for the people. pic.twitter.com/SEoFqGFQYr

— NDL Ringside (@NikoOmilana) July 5, 2024

Niko, who is known for his various pranks online, could be seen moving behind the ex-PM to ensure his sign would be caught in the camera shots, as the conservative leader conceded the election to Labour.

Niko was able to make it to stage and behind the Tory leader as he stood as an independent candidate in Sunak’s Yorkshire seat, which the outgoing PM has retained.

Last month, the famous prankster had said in a video posted on X that he is planning to “completely remove” the UK’s current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak from politics.

There was more misery in store for the 44-year-old leader. 

A cartoon posted by X user @Cartoon4sale shows what appears to be Mr Sunak sliding out of the “0” in 10 Downing Street. It suggests a decline in the power and popularity of Mr Sunak and is trolling his misfortune.

Shortly before Mr Sunak had conceded defeat, Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair posted on its X account saying, “Don’t worry @RishiSunak we’ve got a seat for you”. The post has since received 3.9m views so far.

The Conservative Party led by Mr Sunak suffered a heavy defeat after 14 years in government, ending his premiership, 20 months after he was sworn in amidst political turmoil in the party.

Mr Sunak saw a record number of his top ministerial team lose their seats, including defence secretary Grant Shapps and House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt.

Keir Starmer has promised to “rebuild Britain” as he took office as the UK’s new prime minister following his centre-left Labour party’s landslide general election victory.