Sunak’s path to PM: a tale of intersectionality
Another month, another Prime Minister. Dr Melissa Carr and Dr Miriam Marra – Directors of EDI at Henley - explore the significance of the UK’s first South Asian and Hindu leader.
We have a new British prime minister (again) today. Rishi Sunak is the first British Prime Minister of South Asia descent, and Hindu. There is much to be celebrated in this fact. In the past eight years, we have had two women as PMs and two BAME Chancellors – albeit some staying in their role extremely briefly. This represents some shift towards a more diverse and inclusive scene in UK politics which has traditionally been a stubbornly homogeneous representation of the British elite (read white and male). On the surface, Mr Sunak becoming the PM shows some further evidence of the breakdown of ‘glass ceilings’, be that for gender, race, or religion. However, there is much to think about the timing of these appointments and whether the breakdown of the glass ceiling has not hidden the emergence of a ‘glass cliff’.