British-born Ghanaian and MP for Spelthorne, Kwasi Kwarteng, has been appointed as the new UK Chancellor of the exchequer.
His appointment is part of the new UK Prime Minister, Liz Truss, first cabinet list after taking over the post on Tuesday, September 6.
The British-born politician of Ghanaian descent will be the first black to occupy the office and he will effectively become the second most powerful political figure in the UK.
Kwasi Kwarteng, 47, until his new appointment was the Business and energy minister.
Kwasi Kwarteng became the new chancellor of the exchequer for the United Kingdom as Liz Truss announced her new Cabinet hours after becoming prime minister on Tuesday.
A loyal Truss ally, the 47-year-old politician is the first Black finance minister to be appointed in Britain. He has been a Conservative MP for Spelthorne since 2010, and in January 2021 became the first Black secretary of state.
Truss replaced Boris Johnson as party leader and prime minister after beating former chancellor Rishi Sunak after months of campaigning for the top job in politics.
With inflation running at a 40-year high and the Bank of England predicting a recession by the end of the year, a daunting task awaits the next occupant of Number 11.
Kwarteng attended Eton College, and read classics and history at Trinity College at Cambridge University.
Born to Ghanaian parents, he later attended Harvard University on a Kennedy Scholarship and completed a Ph.D. in Economic History at Cambridge in 2000.
Before becoming a member of parliament, the Waltham-Forest-born father-of-one was a columnist for The Daily Telegraph newspaper, as well as a financial analyst at JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and other investment banks.
Kwarteng is also a published author, writing a book, Ghosts of Empire, about the legacy of the British Empire, in 2011. He also co-authored Gridlock Nation with Jonathan Dupont in the same year, about the causes of and solutions to traffic congestion in Britain.
In 2012, he co-authored Britannia Unchained — a book that questioned the work ethic of Britons, with several Tory MPs including Truss, Dominic Raab, and home secretary Priti Patel.
Over the years, Kwarteng has steadily risen through the ranks of the Conservative party.
He was first elected to office in January 2010 as MP for Spelthorne, taking over from Conservative MP David Wilshire with 22,261 votes. He was re-elected to the seat in the 2015 general election with an increased majority of 24,386 votes.
Kwarteng was a member of the Transport Select Committee from 2010 until 2013, and in 2013 he joined the Work and Pensions Select Committee where he remained a member until 2015.
In October 2016 Kwarteng joined the Public Accounts Committee, staying there until May 2017.
He became parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the leader of the House of Lords in 2015, and in 2017 he became PPS to the chancellor of the exchequer.
Between November 2018 and July 2019 he was parliamentary under secretary of state in the Department for Exiting the European Union, before being appointed to the Cabinet as business secretary in 2021.
In the 2016 EU referendum, Kwarteng voted for Leave and voted against the right to remain for EU nationals already living in the UK.
He backed Johnson in the 2019 Conservative party leadership election.
Tackling the cost of living crisis will be a major challenge for the next chancellor.
