UK's FM Rishi Sunaks next in line to deputise for British PM Boris Johnson

UK's Indian-origin Finance Minister, Rishi Sunak, is next in line to deputise for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson while he is in hospital with novel coronavirus and in case UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is unable to carry on amid the pandemic. 

Thirty-nine year old Sunak, who has been leading the UK government's economic response during the COVID-19 lockdown as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, will automatically step in as part of an established order of precedence in the UK. Mr Johnson's spokesperson at Downing Street said that there is



an established order of precedence.  The spokesperson said that the Prime Minister has appointed the Foreign Secretary Raab as his First Secretary of State and in line with the order of precedence, the Chancellor Sunak would follow from the Foreign Secretary.

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson is said to be stable and responding to treatment after he was admitted to St. Thomas' Hospital in London with persistent coronavirus symptoms and later moved to its intensive care unit to be close to a ventilator.