Last week a remarkable new entry appeared in Wikipedia. Headed “List of Ethnic Minority prime ministers of the United Kingdom in the House of Commons”, it consists of just one name: the Conservative MP for Richmond, Yorkshire, Rishi Sunak. It identifies his ethnicity as “British Indian”. Perhaps the elderly lady in sari and shawl who greeted me boisterously in the local Pret A Manger on Tuesday had read it. In any event she was determined not to be ignored.
“Have you congratulated our new prime minister, Trevor?” she called out. Turning to her companions at the corner table, she said: “He’ll have to have Rishi on his programme now.” I smiled weakly. There seemed little point in admitting that 24 hours earlier his team had
© Times Newspapers Limited 2022.
Registered in England No. 894646. Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, SE1 9GF.