Opinion: What Britain’s first Asian Prime Minister Rishi Sunak meant to my family

Editor’s note: Sandor Katwala I am the director of Britain’s Futureis an independent think tank that studies public attitudes towards integration, immigration, identity and race. He is the author of the following books: “How to Be a Patriot: Why Patriotism Will End the British Culture Wars” The views expressed in this commentary are his own. Read more CNN Opinion.

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The Conservative Party suffered a major defeat in the UK general election, ending Rishi Sunak’s two-year term as Prime Minister. Sunak made history as Britain’s first Asian Prime Minister, but also as the Prime Minister who suffered the biggest electoral defeat in the country’s history. Modern British political history.

Two years ago, Mr. Sunak faced the near-impossible destiny of becoming prime minister. He was the latest in a dizzying stream of Conservative party members vying for the premiership. He was Britain’s third prime minister in two months. Boris Johnson had squandered his already dominant political position on a party that broke Downing Street rules during the pandemic, and soon after Liz Truss’s bold tax-cutting budget collapsed, causing his premiership to implode within weeks.

When Sunak became prime minister, my father, who came to Britain from India as a young doctor in 1968, told me what a significant, symbolic moment it was for him. Now 80, he was faced with a dilemma about how he should cast his own vote.

When the general election was announced six weeks ago, my father told me he would probably vote for Sunak, despite his doubts that the Conservative party was intractably divided. He saw Sunak as an honorable man trying to make the best of difficult times. It sounded like a plan to cast a sympathy vote in case no one else did.

But as the election campaign dragged on, his confidence faded. “I would like to see him stay on as prime minister but the country also needs a change of government,” my father said. “The fact that he’s Indian and a Hindu is probably not a good reason to vote for him, but he’s done well during this terrible time of Covid,” he added, referring to Sunak’s stint as chancellor of the exchequer before becoming prime minister.

He intended to make the final decision inside the polling booth.

Meanwhile, my 18-year-old daughter, trying to decide who to vote for for the first time in her life, didn’t think Mr Sunak’s identity would influence her voting choice. Her top issues were climate change and homelessness. Her friends, some of whom are Asian, associate Mr Sunak with wealth and educational privilege, rather than ethnic background or faith.

After 14 years of the Conservatives in power, young people in this country have never known any other government. They were just under 10 when the UK voted to leave the EU, but they have grown up knowing that it was a big debate, but often felt that no one ever really tried to explain to them what the purpose of it was.

Youth and lack of political experience

At 44, Mr Sunak is stepping down as the youngest former prime minister in more than a century. He became prime minister just seven years after becoming an MP – the shortest term for any Downing Street occupant in recent memory. His political inexperience was evident in some of the mistakes he made during a bitter election campaign.

Mr Sunak has apologised profusely for his decision to walk away from the recent commemorations of the Normandy landings in France, after criticism that he had no respect for British traditions was laced with a questionable hint of bigotry – that he just didn’t understand their meaning.

Sunak personally seems unimpressed by the ceremonial aspects of his role, but the tradition of remembrance is important to Asians living in Britain too. Indeed, the armies that fought in the world wars look more like Britain in 2024 than they do like Britain in 1944. They were drawn from Commonwealth countries, including a large contribution from India, and this is finally being recognised.

As the campaign entered its final week, Mr Sunak spoke out strongly against racist comments made on camera by a campaigner from the right-wing populist Reform UK party, saying his daughters should never have to hear such words said about them.

But while Sunak’s election defeat was political and personal, it had little to do with his faith or ethnic heritage — he was unable to revive his party after 14 years in power — and his negative views on wealth appear to be making it hard for him to connect with voters in such tough economic times.

Ultimately, this crushing defeat has more to do with the blue Tory colour of his party than the colour of his skin.

Rationally, there is evidence that Mr Sunak’s ethnicity must be unimportant in public perception, given how his reputation has risen and fallen in such a short space of time. Mr Sunak was one of the most popular British politicians for decades, until he first came into the public eye as Chancellor of the Exchequer during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr Sunak is seen as more of a technocrat than a party politician, and his plan to subsidise the wages of those unable to work during the lockdown was hugely popular. But his popularity waned after the pandemic ended. He was forced to raise taxes after racking up debts, and his handling of his family’s assets and his wife’s tax returns became a source of controversy.

Again, when he first became prime minister, Sunak’s personal popularity was much better than that of the Conservatives, but after two years in power, both of their popularity went into decline. The political and economic landscape changed, but Sunak’s ethnicity did not.

Mr Sunak, a Hindu, was the first British prime minister to practice a non-Christian faith. The issue has been discussed more in India than in Britain, reflecting a secular political culture and an awkward unease about how to talk about faith here. Mr Sunak has openly celebrated his faith, including lighting a Diwali lamp on the steps of Downing Street, and stressed that he welcomes cultural norms that see diversity at the top as no big deal.

In the UK, there have been ethnic minority leaders in Downing Street and in local governments in Scotland and Wales, but they were elected by political parties rather than by the people. If diversity becomes the new normal in UK politics, ethnic minority leaders will rise and fall depending on how they approach leadership dilemmas.

The election result for Sunak could not have been tougher, but British voters will feel that both he and his party were given a fair chance.