Former PM Rishi Sunak takes job at Goldman Sachs

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Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has joined Goldman Sachs as a senior advisor.

Sunak, who resigned as PM in July 2024, will work part-time advising the bank’s clients with his “unique perspectives and insights” on global politics and the economy, the company said.

He remains the Conservative MP for Richmond and Northallerton in Yorkshire.

Sunak previously worked at the bank as an analyst in the early 2000s before he entered politics.

Goldman Sachs’ chairman and chief executive David Solomon said he was “excited to welcome Rishi back” to the firm.

Alongside advising clients, Sunak will also “spend time with our people around the world, contributing to our culture of ongoing learning and development”, Solomon said.

Sunak’s salary will be donated to The Richmond Project, a charity he founded earlier this year alongside his wife Akshata Murty to try and improve numeracy across the UK.

The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), which must sign off jobs taken by former ministers for two years after they leave office, said Sunak’s new role presented a number of risks that Goldman Sachs could benefit from unfair access to information due to his time as prime minister.

He will not be allowed to advise other governments or their sovereign wealth funds for the bank, or advise clients that he had direct dealings with while he was prime minister.

He also cannot lobby the UK government on behalf of the bank.

Acoba noted that Sunak previously spent 14 years working in the financial services sector before he became an MP, including at Goldman Sachs.

He first joined the bank as an intern in 2000, before working as an analyst from 2001 to 2004.

He later co-founded an international investment firm.

First elected as an MP in 2015, Sunak served as Boris Johnson’s chancellor during the Covid pandemic.

He became a household name when announcing schemes such as furlough at pandemic-era press conferences.

His resignation as chancellor in July 2022 sparked the downfall of Johnson’s government.

Following Liz Truss’ brief spell in Number 10, Sunak became prime minister in October 2022. He held the role until July 2024, when he led the Conservatives to their biggest electoral defeat in history.

The job at Goldman Sachs is the latest role Sunak has taken since stepping down as prime minister.

In January he joined the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, as well as the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in the US. He is not paid for either of these roles.

He has however been paid more than £500,000 since April for giving three speaking engagements.

Former prime ministers often join speakers agencies to give talks to major companies or at dinner events.

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Credit: BBC