Rishi Sunak has bungee-jumped back to the top of British politics. Just last month, his prospects plunged when he was soundly beaten to the Tory leadership by Liz Truss. He was banished from the cabinet and forced to deny rumours that he would leave Westminster altogether, perhaps to work in finance in the US.

But Sunak’s warnings about Truss’s unfunded tax cuts proved prescient more quickly than he could have expected. Having trounced rival candidates among Tory MPs, he will now be invited by King Charles to form a government.

Sunak, 42, will be Britain’s first non-white prime minister — as well as the first with an MBA and a past life at Goldman Sachs. Politically, he is a contradiction. He is a rightwing Conservative who has relied on the centre and left of the party for his support.