Rishi Sunak has officially become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after King Charles III invited him to form a government on Tuesday.
Sunak met the King at Buckingham Palace’s 1844 room, shortly after outgoing PM, Liz Truss tendered her resignation to the 73-year-old monarch.
The 42-year-old thus becomes the first person of colour and first British-Asian to lead the country.
Sunak is the third UK PM in seven weeks.
In her final speech at 10 Downing Street, Truss highlighted the need for the country to be “bold and confront the challenges that we face”.
She wished her successor “every success” in taking charge.
“Our country continues to battle through a storm. But I believe in Britain. I believe in the British people. And I know that brighter days lie ahead,” she added.
In his first speech as PM, Sunak praised Truss for daring to confront the challenges the way she deemed fit, but noted that mistakes were made.
“I want to pay tribute to my predecessor Liz Truss. She was not wrong to want to improve growth in this country. It is a noble aim. And I admired her restlessness to create change.
“But some mistakes were made — not born of ill will, or bad intentions. Quite the opposite, in fact. But mistakes, nonetheless. And I have been elected as leader of my party and your prime minister, in part to fix them,” he said.
The new PM promised that his government would not burden coming generations with debt but would make the “difficult decisions” needed to move the nation forward.
“I will place economic stability and confidence at the heart of this government’s agenda. This will mean difficult decisions to come,” Sunak said.
He said his work during the heat of the COVID-19 pandemic should give an insight into his capabilities.
“You saw me during COVID doing everything I could to protect people and businesses with schemes like furlough.
“There are always limits, more so now than ever. But I promise you this, I will bring that same compassion to the challenges we face today.
“The government I lead will not leave the next generation, your children and grandchildren, with a debt to settle that we were too weak to pay ourselves,” Sunak said.