I remember when Barack Obama was first elected president in 2008. Aged 14, I’d barely listened to the news before, but that weekend I sat at our kitchen table poring over a Sunday newspaper my parents had bought. The fact Obama had remotely comparable skin colouring (albeit due to Kenyan ancestry rather than my own Sri Lankan heritage) made me feel part of a world I’d until then assumed unreachable. His optimistic slogan, “yes we can”, and willingness to reach across the political divide lifted my heart; I wonder if I’d ever have become interested in politics otherwise, or be in the job I’m in now.
To hear people describe Rishi Sunak becoming Prime Minister as “Britain’s Obama moment” feels, therefore, a little odd. Let me be clear: I feel warmed to know a Hindu Asian man can ascend to the highest office in the land, not least on the day my family WhatsApp groups were pinging with Diwali Gifs. I squirm at suggestions by supposed “liberals” that he (along with Suella Braverman and Priti Patel) is somehow “Asian, but not really”, because of his conservatism.
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