Undated photo of Rishi Sunak with a glass Photo posted on Facebook February 11, 2007
With a glimpse of chest hair and a warm hug from his wife-to-be, this is a carefree youngster Rishi Sunak long before he got involved in the world of politics.
Photographed in 2008 while partying at a members-only Mayfair nightclub, he had just moved from California to work in London for a hedge fund run by a billionaire financier.
At the age of 28, Sunak was in a relationship with his future wife Akshata Murty, but the couple was just forced to make a very difficult decision.
While en route to Britain, she felt rooted in America and decided to stay there, enrolling in a postgraduate course at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in THE.
Despite living 5,400 miles apart, the pair regularly flew back and forth across the Atlantic.
These photos show them spending an evening with friends at the Whiskey Mist nightclub in London.
Mrs. Murty is seen having a cocktail while Mr. Sunak (who says he is a teetotaler and “a total Coca-Cola addict”) generously bought all the drinks for the couple’s friends that night.
Rishi Sunak and wife Akshata Murthy at Whiskey Mist members club, London
At the time, the Park Lane club was popular with the young Prince Harry and celebrities such as Beyoncé and Leonardo DiCaprio. Many years later, Tesla mogul Elon Musk met his second wife, actress Tallulah Riley, there.
Whiskey Mist is apparently named after an incident where a tipsy Queen Victoria thought she had seen a deer in the mist from the window of Balmoral Castle.
Friends of Mr. Sunak and his girlfriend remember that evening how many guests focused on Mrs. Murty because of her family’s fabulous wealth.
Her father founded the global IT giant Infosys.
Sunak was described by one female reveler as “the most considerate friend you’ve ever seen” and as “one who would ask a lot of questions, but not reveal too much about himself.”
Not long before that, he had been in Africa, where he met some of Barack Obama’s relatives. He was photographed with them holding a copy of the future US president’s book, Dreams From My Father: A Story Of Race And Inheritance.
The photo was posted on Mr Sunak’s Facebook page. Obama used his book as an introduction to introduce himself to the American people when he campaigned in 2008 to become the first black American president.
Fourteen years later, the young Briton captivated by that book is campaigning to become Britain’s first prime minister of Asian descent – and America’s greatest ally.
Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murthy (left) at Whiskey Mist members club, London. Photo by Michelle Bromley-Mcghie DECEMBER 2008
Rishi: Compensate victims of blood scandal ‘without delay’
By Brendan Carlin, Political Correspondent for the Sunday Post
Rishi Sunak called on victims of the contaminated blood scandal to receive £100,000 in compensation ‘immediately’.
The aspiring prime minister said it was a “tragic injustice” and added: “Survivors and their families should now have security.”
Liz Truss, his rival to the Tory leadership, said victims and their families have “waited long enough to get the compensation they need” and said as prime minister she would make sure that the compensation “as soon as possible” would be paid.
Their intervention came after three former health secretaries said the £100,000 payments recommended by an official inquiry should be made as soon as possible, as the victims’ life expectancy had been drastically shortened.
Former Labor Secretary Andy Burnham called on Boris Johnson to approve the payments before he leaves Downing Street next month.
Rishi Sunak called on victims of the tainted blood scandal to receive £100,000 in compensation ‘without delay’
He told the BBC: ‘Please Prime Minister, do this today, say you will do it today, no one will disagree, every MP will support it, people have waited far, far too long.’
Former Tory health secretaries Jeremy Hunt and Matt Hancock both said they believed the government should make the payments as soon as possible.
On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Hunt said waiting for the Tory leadership contest to end would be too late for many victims. Mr Hancock said there is a “moral duty on the state, the government, to pay compensation.”
At least 5,000 people contracted HIV or hepatitis C in the 1970s and 1980s after receiving contaminated blood products and transfusions from the NHS.
Last week, Sir Brian Langstaff, chair of the scandal inquiry, said interim payments of at least £100,000 “should be paid promptly to all infected and to all surviving relatives”.
The Cabinet Office said yesterday it would respond to compensation recommendations ‘with the utmost urgency’ and a copy of the inquiry report would be presented to MPs ‘as soon as Parliament meets again next month’.