Rishi Sunak’s age is the most politically interesting thing about him

He must find ways of helping the cohort of fortysomethings achieve what a Conservative government has promised, writes Salma Shah

Politics has always been an old person’s game, so what he needs to do won’t be easy from an electoral vantage (AFP/Getty)

For me, as someone of similar Indian heritage, the fact that Rishi Sunak is an ethnic minority is neither here nor there. Frankly, most people are just relieved that someone with a businesslike understanding of the economy is in charge in these troubled times.

Truly, the most interesting vital statistic of this PM is his relatively young age. At 42, he not only goes into No 10 as the country’s youngest occupant of the role for 210 years, but his age is really the most interesting thing about him politically too.

The UK median age is 40. So, strangely, his generational references are shared with a large proportion of the population he now serves. And they have an incredibly tough lot. Most will not have achieved the dream of home ownership and will be struggling with stagnating wages and increased prices.

If you are lucky, you will just about make ends meet with your food and fuel bills going up, and you might be able to manage childcare if you are fortunate enough to have grandparents nearby to help. That is assuming you’re not caring for parents too. That’s before we even get onto the difficulties in accessing public services.

Obviously, the fact that he’s extremely wealthy insulates him personally from these traumas, but his age and place in life with a young family and the juggling that comes with it should make him sympathetic to the plight of his counterparts across the country. More than this, it should make him bold in his policy choices.

There’s already been a soft signal that the sacred cow – the triple lock on pensions – may be sacrificed for the greater good of balancing the books. This isn’t just a question of making the numbers add up for the Treasury’s scorecard, the issue of intergenerational unfairness has been talked about but not dealt with for long enough.

Rishi must also find ways of helping this cohort of fortysomethings achieve the things a Conservative government has promised. Namely, the ability to get on and attain capital. If he is going to have any chance at the next election, he must drive hard to help people achieve home ownership.

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Nimbys aside, there is much to do to solve the housing crisis, and his economic credibility puts him in a good place to drive forward the reforms and ideas needed to unlock this dream for so many people desperately looking for security a place of their own brings.

Politics has always been an old person’s game, so what he needs to do won’t be easy from an electoral vantage. There is much to be said for having cool heads in a crisis and people with experience making tough decisions, but the average age of the UK parliament has hovered around 50 for a long time and there is a problem with this. Older decision makers have a different frame of reference, and a very different worldview.

Rishi, whilst young, is talented. Though there is a certain naivety about him, he has the energy of his 40s. He is at that time of life when kids destroy your social life, where achieving something in your career is paramount and when you’re still worried about what’s to come, not what you’re leaving behind.

The fact he’s of Indian heritage is a great moment for this country, but his skin colour seems somehow less relevant for the task ahead than his age.