Rishi Sunak is set to become the next British prime minister following a meeting with King Charles III, media outlets have reported.
Sunak is the Conservative MP for Richmond (Yorks) and has been an MP continuously since May 7, 2015, according to the official Parliament website. He is the leader of the Conservative Party.
CNBC noted that Sunak is the U.K.'s third prime minister this year, following Boris Johnson, who resigned in July; and Liz Truss, who became the country's shortest-serving PM after announcing her resignation on Oct. 20.
The 42-year-old will be the youngest U.K. prime minister since 1812, and the first person of color to lead the country, which U.S. President Joe Biden said was "a groundbreaking milestone." Sunak's parents are of Indian descent and, in the 1960s, moved from East Africa to the United Kingdom.
Sunak also has the greatest personal wealth of any of his predecessors. His wife, Akshata Murthy, is the daughter of Indian IT company Infosys co-founder N. R. Narayana Murthy, and the couple have a combined net worth of about $825 million. Before entering politics, Sunak worked as an analyst at Goldman Sachs and was a partner at billionaire Chris Hohn's Children's Investment Fund Management.
According to PinkNews, Sunak's appointment has divided LGBTQ+-rights advocates. Jayne Ozanne, the former government LGBTQ+ advisor and anti-conversion therapy campaigner, congratulated him but also urged him to rebuild the Tory party's relationship with the LGBTQ+ community. The party has been condemned for dropping trans people from a conversion therapy ban, among other things.
Human-rights campaigner Peter Tatchell was not particularly hopeful. "Rishi offered nothing to the LGBT+ community during his leadership campaign," he told PinkNews. "I am not hopeful about any progress on banning conversion therapy or reform of the Gender Recognition Act under his premiership."
Tatchell called for an immediate election, stating, "Rishi has no mandate for anything. He was not elected by the British people. He was selected by a tiny group of just over 100 Tory MPs."