Rishi Sunak: Best of a Bad Bunch?

With all other contenders withdrawing from the race and having amassed the requisite 100 nominations from MPs (and then some), Rishi Sunak has been confirmed as the new Conservative Party leader and de-facto prime minister of the United Kingdom.

The Conservative Party is largely rallying around the new PM at this early stage of his tenure. The fact though that Sunak already came second in a leadership contest with the spectacularly unsuccessful Liz Truss just a few weeks ago - combined with the lack of any serious competition for the role this time around - leaves the prime minister open to being branded the 'best of a bad bunch'.

As a survey conducted at the end of last week shows, the share of British adults thinking Sunak would do a good or a bad job as PM was quite evenly split: 43 percent good, 40 percent bad. This unconvincing result looks far more positive when compared to the two that briefly emerged as his main rivals over the weekend, however. Boris Johnson, forced out of office in the summer, found just 34 percent of respondents with a positive view of a potential second stint in Number 10 - 56 percent thought this would be a bad idea. Penny Mordaunt, who conceded on Monday to hand Sunak the leadership without the need for a Tory membership vote, attracted a large share of 'Not sure' responses, but ultimately a larger share of those with a solid opinion on her prospects said she would do a bad job as prime minister.

Mixed expectations aside, the appointment of Sunak is a historic one. The first British Asian prime minister, at the age of 42 he is also the youngest leader of the country in over 200 years.