Rishi Sunak has formally become Prime Minister today, after he met with King Charles III, and gave his acceptance speech outside 10 Downing Street. He is now the UK’s 57th prime minister and will enter Downing Street as the youngest PM in two centuries.
Truss made her resignation speech at 10.15 this morning, during which she defended her legacy of trying to push through tax cuts and said leaders needed to be bold. She then travelled to Buckingham Palace to have her final audience with the King and formally resign. Following this, Sunak was invited to form a government after his first audience with the King in a ceremony known as the ‘kissing of hands’.
Britain’s King Charles III greets newly appointed Conservative Party leader and incoming prime minister Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace
AARON CHOWN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Sunak made his first statement outside Number 10 before entering the building as the UK’s first British Asian PM. His first speech as PM lasted almost six minutes, longer than all the equivalent speeches by incoming PMs in recent decades, except for Boris Johnson in 2019, who spoke for 11 minutes and 13 seconds.
In his speech, Sunak payed tribute to Truss, saying she was not wrong to want to improve growth in this country, and admitted ‘it’s a noble aim’. While he admired her restlessness to create change, ‘some mistakes were made’, though he admitted they were ‘not born of ill will or bad intentions.’ Sunak said he is determined to fix these mistakes: ‘that work begins immediately,’ he said. He also said that he was ready to lead the country ‘into the future and put your needs above politics’, pledging to build a government that ‘represents the best of my party’.
