Rishi Sunak on Tuesday became the U.K.’s third prime minister of the year following a meeting with King Charles III.
The tradition sees the monarch invite the leader of the party with the highest number of MPs to form a government, which since the 2019 general election has been the Conservatives.
In a speech outside 10 Downing Street after the meeting, Sunak said: “Our country is facing a profound economic crisis. The aftermath of Covid still lingers, Putin’s war in Ukraine has destabilized energy markets and supply chains the world over.”
He paid tribute to his predecessor Liz Truss, who he said was “not wrong” to want to improve U.K. growth. But, he continued, “some mistakes were made,” not “borne of ill will or bad intentions” but “mistakes nonetheless” — and he had been elected “in part to fix them.”
“I will place economic stability and confidence at the heart of the government’s agenda. This will mean difficult decisions to come. But you saw me during Covid doing everything I could to protect people and businesses with schemes like furlough. There are always limits, more so than ever, but I promise you this. I will bring that same compassion to the challenges we face today.”
He then indicated he would implement the manifesto on which the Conservatives were elected in 2019.
The British pound was trading 0.4% higher against the dollar following the speech, at $1.1321. Sterling has failed to get a significant boost from Sunak’s appointment, but has recovered from the lows below $1.1 it reached earlier in the month.
Meanwhile, yields on short- and long-term U.K. sovereign bonds, known as gilts, dropped sharply Monday as it became clear Sunak would take office, and continued to move lower Tuesday. Yields move inversely to prices.
He was elected party leader by fellow Conservative lawmakers on Monday following the resignation of Truss on Thursday last week.
Sunak is now expected to begin appointing new cabinet figures in yet another reshuffle at the top of British politics.
