The most desi UK Cabinet ever

UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s cabinet reshuffle last week, which included the nomination of the country’s first British-Indian Chancellor of the Exchequer, has made the current UK Cabinet the most desi (Indian-origin) ever.

Rishi Sunak was elevated from his post as chief secretary of the treasury to chancellor following the resignation of Sajid Javid. He had entered parliament in 2015 from former Conservative leader William Hague’s old seat of Richmond in Yorkshire. Oxford educated and son-in-law of Infosys' co-founder Narayana Murthy, Sunak was a career investment banker before entering politics.

Along with Sunak, people of Indian-origin in UK’s Cabinet are Priti Patel, Alok Sharma and Suella Braverman.

Home secretary Patel’s Gujarati parents left Uganda in the 1960s and settled in Hertfordshire. In the latest reshuffle, she held on to her job as Home Secretary. She had made history as the senior-most Indian-origin Cabinet minister to be appointed by Johnson in July last year.

Meanwhile, Agra-born Alok Sharma is the UK’s current Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, as well as the head of the COP26 conference.

And Suella Braverman, the new attorney general of the UK, traces her heritage to Goa.

-TIN Bureau