Rishi Sunak's appointment as U.K. PM was done legitimately and according to the laid out procedures. The WEF did not install him in the position.
Context
British politics has seen rapid changes in succession, having had three different prime ministers in about two months. In October, Rishi Sunak was elected as the next prime minister, making him the third U.K. prime minister in 2022. Weeks after Sunak's move to No.10, several social media posts linking him to the World Economic Forum (WEF) started doing the rounds claiming that the WEF installed him as the U.K. prime minister and that he was pushing their globalist agenda.
The link on one such post on Facebook took us to a video published on November 1 on the website BitChute, known for hosting far-right commentators, conspiracy theorists, and hate speeches. The video, shared by a channel on the platform "SixthSense," claimed that Rishi Sunak was a WEF member and that he, along with several other British politicians, worked at the behest of the WEF. It alleged that Rishi Sunak was made the British prime minister in a "coup by WEF" and that the contest for the prime ministerial race was just a "charade." However, the video uses several claims that are inaccurate, as well as baseless conspiracy theories, to further its message.
In Fact
Boris Johnson, who became prime minister of the U.K. with a vast majority in 2019, announced his resignation within three years in July 2022. Subsequently, in October 2022, Liz Truss was elected as the next prime minister in a tightly contested leadership election. However, she was forced to resign soon after.
Sunak was elected as the British prime minister on October 24, 2022, after gaining the support of nearly 200 Conservative MPs, after his fellow candidate Penny Mordaunt pulled out of the race for a ticket to 10 Downing Street. According to a U.K. Parliament Research Briefing document, the procedure followed in choosing Sunak as the prime minister was set forth by the Executive of the 1922 Committee in consultation with the Conservative Party Board. While this leadership election was modified to be completed within a week of Truss announcing she would step down, it was a completely legitimate process. Party members voted for Sunak according to the rules set out, leading to him being elected the leader of the Conservatives and, thereby, the PM of the U.K.
The appointment of Sunak resulted in a steep rise in conspiracy theories linking him to the WEF and Klaus Schwab. One such claim emerged from a purported tweet by WEF, carrying a photo of Sunak and stating, "We always get our man." The tweet was shared soon after his appointment as U.K. PM was confirmed, causing people to believe that the WEF admitted Sunak was under their control. However, the tweet came from a parody account named "World Ecommunist Forum" and not the official handle of WEF.
The video shared on BitChute has made several other baseless claims that have been debunked by Logically and other independent fact-checkers alike. One of these claims is that Sunak, and several MPs in the U.K., including Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Kwasi Kwarteng, Jeremy Hunt, and Tobias Elwood, are WEF members. However, such allegations are baseless, as individuals cannot be members of the WEF.
The video also claimed that Sunak's team created his campaign website "readyforrishi.com" in December 2021, showing that he had been informed well ahead by Schwab about the plan for him. It must be noted that whether Sunak's team had set up the website in December remains disputed. However, while the practice of setting up a campaign website before the sitting prime minister's resignation could raise some eyebrows, it is not uncommon or illegal. According to a report by Sky News, Mordaunt had also registered a website, "pm4pm.com," in May 2019, two months before Theresa May resigned as prime minister. There have also been similar instances with Truss. There is no evidence of a larger conspiracy with this practice that can be factually validated and links Sunak to the WEF.
Furthermore, there is no basis for the insinuation made in the video about CBDCs and Sunak's appointment as prime minister. CBDC is a concept that has not materialized yet, and no official plan has been laid out either by the Bank of England (BOE) or the U.K. government. Unlike what the video insinuates, CBDCs will not allow the government to enslave people by controlling people's money and how it is spent. They will instead make monetary transactions safer and make regulation easier.
The rest of the video delves deep into baseless and oft-touted conspiracy theories like the "Eye of Providence." Seen on several buildings and religious structures, including the back of a U.S. one dollar bill, this symbol has been used for centuries on religious relics. It is believed that the eye inside the triangle would mean that god is looking over. However, conspiracy theorists have long propagated this as a symbol evil and people with malicious intentions linking it to unrelated incidents and making baseless correlations.
The Verdict
Allegations of a coup in British politics by the World Economic Forum and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak being a puppet of Klaus Schwab and his globalist agenda have no basis in fact. Sunak was legitimately elected as the prime minister of the U.K. The claim that he is a member of the WEF is false, and there is no evidence to prove that he works at the behest of the body. The recent political turmoil in Britain and the economic crisis in the country is being used to propagate conspiracies. Hence, we have marked the claim as false.
Copied!