“I have given this job my all,” said Rishi Sunak in his farewell address as British Prime Minister on the steps of 10 Downing Street and that is likely to be how he goes down in history.
As the UK’s first leader of Indian heritage, the first Hindu and the first of non-white ethnicity, the 44-year-old leaves behind quite the legacy despite presiding over the Conservative Party’s worst electoral performance in history.
His words that “one of the most remarkable things” about modern Britain is that just how “unremarkable” his migrant roots were to the top job will resonate with many, not least a 1.8-million-strong Indian diaspora.
“I think history will be relatively kind to Rishi Sunak; despite the scale of this defeat, I think the analysis will be that he was dealt with an almost impossible hand 12 years in,” says Sunder Katwala, Director of the British Future think tank, reflecting upon the turmoil that Sunak inherited when he took office in October 2022 after 12 years of a Tory government.