King Charles To Meet With New UK PM Rishi Sunak, First Non-White Prime Minister

Britain's reigning monarch King Charles is set to meet with newly-elected Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday morning.

The meeting is expected to take place after outgoing Prime Minister Liz Truss chairs a final meeting of her cabinet at 9 a.m., and before 42-year-old Sunak gives his first address and announces his Cabinet outside 10 Downing Street at around 11:35 a.m. local time, according to The Guardian. It is unclear what issues, if any, Sunak and the King would talk about during their meeting.

Sunak's meeting with the British monarch comes as the country faces soaring inflation and energy bills and a tumultuous government that has seen two prime ministers resign within the last three months.

Sunak's win come weeks after he ran against Truss — whose tenure ended six weeks after the election following a failed tax-cutting budget that plunged the British financial market into chaos and led to a revolt within the Conservative Party.

When Sunak is formally installed as Britain's prime minister Tuesday, he will become the youngest person to have been elected for the job in over 200 years. He will also become the first Hindu and the first person of color to be the U.K.'s prime minister.

"British Indian is what I tick on the census, we have a category for it. I am thoroughly British, this is my home and my country, but my religious and cultural heritage is Indian, my wife is Indian. I am open about being a Hindu," Sunak told the Business Standard in a 2015 interview.

Sunak's political career began when he first entered the British Parliament in 2015 after working in the banking industry. In 2020, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed him as finance minister — a role formally known as chancellor of the Exchequer.

Sunak was also behind the furlough payments that were sent out during the COVID-19 lockdowns and the "Eat Out to Help Out" scheme for restaurants. Previously, he also campaigned for Brexit and the idea of "free ports," meaning food can be imported or exported by companies near ports or airports without paying taxes, as per BBC.