Indian-Origin Candidate Leads British Conservative Party Leadership Race

According to the report, five candidates won the second round of the British Conservative Party leadership election on July 14th, and were shortlisted for the third round of voting. Among them, the one who received the most support was Rishi Sunak, a former finance minister with Indian origin.

 Sunak, 42, is the son of Indian immigrants. He graduated from Oxford University and worked for Goldman Sachs, an internationally renowned investment bank. He was elected to the British Parliament at the age of 35, and was promoted to Chancellor of the Exchequer in less than five years. However, Sunak was implicated into the partygate scandal with former Prime Minister Johnson in June this year, and was fined by the police for violating the lockdown regulations during the pandemic, attracting public criticism.

 As reported 97% of the British Conservative Party members are white males and tend to choose older, wealthy white male as party leader. The candidates shortlisted for the third round of voting this time show a diversity of racial and gender identities. Beside Sunak, who is of Indian descent, the other candidates are two white women – Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, former Defense Secretary Penny Mordaunt, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee of the house of commons Tom Tugendha, and former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Kemi Badenoch who is an African-origin.