LONDON (UK) – British finance minister Rishi Sunak is next in line to lead the country if Dominic Raab is also incapacitated.
Raab is currently standing in for hospitalised British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Johnson was admitted for a night in the intensive care unit receiving oxygen treatment following a persistent high temperature and cough, a week after testing positive for coronavirus.
Raab has taken over a part of Johnson’s responsibilities like chairing the government’s daily meeting on the coronavirus crisis. However, 55-year-old Boris Johnson still remains prime minister.
“There is an established order of precedence. In line with the order of precedence, the Chancellor (Sunak) would follow from the Foreign Secretary.”
– Boris Johnson’s spokesman
In February, Sunak’s appointment as finance minister came as a surprise following then-finance minister’s Sajid Javid’s resignation.
Sunak was a 39-year old former Goldman Sachs banker and staunch Johnson loyalist and he has already risen rapidly through the government’s ranks to one of the highest offices in the land. Sunak only entered parliament in 2015.
Sunak delivered his first budget in March just a few weeks after taking office. He had to pledge hundreds of billions of pounds of unprecedented support for British businesses when the government effectively shuttered much of the economy to keep people at home and prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field.
