Rishi Sunak’s elevation to Chancellor of the Exchequer may have been dramatic, but the 39-year-old has long been marked out as a rising star in the Conservative party. The wealthy Winchester-educated son of Indian immigrants entered Parliament in 2015, taking over William Hague’s old seat of Richmond in Yorkshire, and won first his junior ministerial role under Theresa May. The committed Brexiteer was catapulted rapidly into the cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury by Boris Johnson last July. The rumours that he was likely to replace Sajid Javid - who backed Remain in the referendum - were never far from the surface. He was one of the few ministers trusted by Downing Street as a media performer during the build up to December’s general election and filled in for Johnson during the seven way “leaders’ debate” boycotted by both Conservatives and Labour before polling day. Sunak also sat in on “no deal” planning meetings chaired by Michael Gove. Although Sunak has the classic “politician’s degree” - taking a first in politics, philosophy and economics from Oxford - he struck out for a career in the City first. He began his career at investment bank Goldman Sachs as an analyst before moving to the Children’s Investment Fund, the hedge fund run by Sir Chris Hohn in 2006. Like his predecessor as Chancellor who worked at Deutsche Bank, old habits die hard for Sunak who also insists on keeping a Bloomberg terminal in his office to keep an eye on financial markets. The Hindu father of two met his wife at Stanford University while studying for an MBA. His father-in-law, NR Narayana Murthy, the billionaire co-founder of IT and consulting firm Infosys, is one of India’s richest men. But his heritage has given him a perspective far beyond the horizon of the European Union and natural leanings towards Brexit. He has been a long-time proponent of key initiatives poised to be adopted by the Johnson government such as tax-beneficial free ports. As long ago as November 2016, he argued that the UK should use “the newfound freedom of Brexit” to set up free ports, saying that the “Government would not only send a bold message to the world, but also provide an almighty boost to British manufacturing”. His frustration and loyalty to the Brexit cause in 2017 - “why then is Brexit still being treated as a problem we can’t wait to be rid of rather than an opportunity to be seized?” - has now been rewarded with one of the great offices of state. Mr Sunak lists his hobbies as keeping fit, playing cricket and football and watching films. He takes his Commons oath on the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Sanskrit text. The new Chancellor has an encyclopaedic knowledge of Star Wars. Yesterday a photograph of Mr Sunak and Mr Javid outside a Star Wars screening was widely circulated.