Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s announced the Spending Review on Wednesday. As people fear spending freeze, pay cuts, job losses, cuts on foreign aids and increasing taxes, with Diwali just gone and Christmas cheer in the air, all is not doom and gloom.
Chancellor, who is one of the most powerful politicians in the UK, has remained an inspiration for British Indians, especially with his recent homage to his culture as he saluted his community saying, “I stand on the shoulders of all of you and hope to make you proud.”
Mr Sunak met Conservative Friends of India members and guests at a zoom Diwali celebration last week. Chaired by Cllr Reena Ranger and Cllr Ameet Jogia, the event was attended by 450+ people, many of whom were given an opportunity to ask questions. Under these young leaders the group has lately been found to be more interactive and engaging.
Saluting parents and in-laws
Mr Sunak who is an inspiration for the aspiring politicians, especially from the Indian diaspora, said he took up politics to give back to the society, exactly as his parents or parents-in-law did. “My parents are the reason I went into politics. My father is a GP and my mother is a pharmacist. I worked in my mother’s pharmacy, as a dispensary assistant, I delivered prescription. They did the same thing at the same place for 30 years- and impacted so manty people’s lives. And I wanted to do the same. But in my own way, by being a good local MP.
“I am fortunate to have extra inspiration from my in-laws, in different ways. My father-in-law from nothing created a global best in class business and put India on a global map when it came to software and IT. My mother-in-law has been able to make differences to millions of people’s lives in India. What they achieved, made me realise that if you succeed in life, you can have impact in that massive scale and that was my other motivation to succeed in politics,” he said.
Mr Sunak is married to Akshata Murthy, who is the daughter of Indian billionaire and co-founder of Infosys, Narayana Murthy and social worker Sudha Murthy.
As Coronavirus figures hit the highest death marks since May on Tuesday evening, Mr Sunak and Boris Johnson have believed to cut on foreign aids to ensure Britain has enough at this trying times. Britain is legally bound to spend at least 0.7% of output on foreign aids but on Tuesday Downing Street reportedly said that the law allows the pledge to be suspended in extreme situations.
Speaking about forging a better relationship with India in the post-Brexit world, especially when it comes to a Free Trade Agreement and in absence of an UK-India Trade envoy, Mr Sunak said, “One of the great opportunities of Brexit is to reassert our country’s place as outward looking, keen to engage with countries all around the world. The global economy is in a good place. There are record number of poorer countries who had to approach the IMF for emergency funding, and we are one of the lead countries, helping those countries to get through difficult times. I have spent quite a lot of time, talking with other finance ministers, the IMF, the World Bank to help some of those countries to help with their debts.
“We have to use our opportunity to broaden our horizon. We have an economic and financial dialogue; we have just concluded one with India and it was a huge success. Lot of specific measures came out of that- gift city i.e., where we are going connect the City of London with infrastructural investment in India. We are improving trading, bonds and shares between the two countries and we are taking forward some other initiatives as well.”
Bollywood music, rangoli and mithai at 11 Downing Street
Chancellor Sunak was seen last week lighting a diya outside his residence at 11 Downing Street, the first in British history, to celebrate Diwali. He said, he believed it was important for everyone to see that.
“This is our home, and it is our front door. I knew it was important for everyone in my family and I wanted people to see that. I am very proud where I come from. It always be an enormous part of who I am. We should not shy away from our identity and background and to able to do that in my new home, it was important to me. And I hope it made all of you a little bit proud of our culture and heritage.
“My kids certainly had a lot of fun. We did sparklers, they painted their Rangoli, which is still at our doorstep. We did all of that on Saturday evening, with Bollywood music in the background, with the Police officers at Downing street looking puzzled about what is going on. It was a real joy; it is our home, and this is what we do on Diwali and that should not change.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson just before the Festival of Light spoke about the increasing importance of the meaning of Diwali in today’s world.
While the Covid-19 vaccine is perhaps regarded as the victory of light over darkness that Diwali celebrates, Mr Sunak elaborated how it’s a promising news for the world. “There are two vaccines that have shown enormous efficacies. Both of those, are based on the same technology. We have more of the Pfizer one, than the Moderna.
“Moderna one is slightly easier to distribute as it does not require as deeply cold storage on its journey. Moderna trial was specifically very good at enrolling a huge number of ethnic minorities. They also wanted to enrol more of older and vulnerable people to show that the vaccine worked in different high-risk groups. That data is not fully released yet, but the early signs are promising.
“But the big one yet to come is the Oxford University vaccine. Hopefully that’s coming soon. The great advantage of that vaccine over all the others is, it’s far cheaper, it does not require cold storage and it requires only one shot. Both the other vaccines require two shots, two weeks apart.”
However, it is believed that Mr Sunak has refused to comment to the UK newspapers, whether he will profit from an increase in the share price of Moderna, which is one of the biggest investments held by the hedge fund he had co-founded before becoming a MP.
AstraZeneca on Monday said its vaccine could be around 90% effective without any serious side effects. It will have 200mn doses by end of 2020 and 700mn doses globally ready by first quarter of 2021.
