UK’s Third Female Prime Minister Appoints First Black Minister Of Finance

The United Kingdom’s new Prime Minister, Mary Elizabeth Truss, has appointed Kwasi Kwarteng (47) as the country’s Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister) becoming the first black person to hold the post.

Truss is the third female UK Prime Minister after Margaret Hilda Thatcher (1979 to 1990) and Theresa May (2016 to 2019), with all three coming from the Conservative party.

According to BBC News via The Herald, Kwarteng was born in the UK in 1975, but his parents came to the UK from Ghana in the 1960s as students.

He takes over from Nadhim Zahawi, an Iraqi-born Kurd, who himself succeeded Rishi Sunak, of Indian origin.

As the UK government’s chief financial minister, Kwarteng is responsible for raising revenue through taxation or borrowing and for controlling public spending. Below is Kwarteng’s profile according to GOV.UK:

He was previously Secretary of State at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy between 8 January 2021 and 6 September 2022.

He was previously Minister of State at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Kwasi was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Exiting the European Union from 16 November 2018 to 24 July 2019.

Kwasi read classics and history at Trinity College, Cambridge, and then attended Harvard University on a Kennedy Scholarship. He earned a PhD in economic history from the University of Cambridge in 2000.

Before becoming a Member of Parliament, Kwasi worked as an analyst in financial services.

Kwasi was elected the Conservative MP for Spelthorne in 2010. From 2010 until 2013 he was a member of the Transport Select Committee, and in 2013 he joined the Work and Pensions Select Committee where he was a member until 2015.

In October 2016 Kwasi joined the Public Accounts Committee, where he was a member until May 2017.

In 2015 Kwasi was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Leader of the House of Lords, and in 2017 he became Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.