False: The WEF installed Rishi Sunak as the U.K. prime minister to push their globalist agenda.

Context

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 Facebook post took us to a video published on November 1 on the website BitChute, known for hosting far-right commentary and conspiracy theories. 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 makes several inaccurate claims and pushes baseless conspiracy theories.

In Fact

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. According to a U.K. Parliament Research Briefing document, the procedure 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 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. prime minister was confirmed. 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, suggesting he had been instructed by Schwab in advance of the leadership race. Whether Sunak's team set up the website in December remains disputed. However, the practice of setting up a campaign website in advance of a sitting prime minister's resignation 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 is no evidence of a larger conspiracy related to this action that links Sunak to the WEF.

In addition, the video also claimed that Sunak was looking to impose a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). A CBDC is a concept that has yet to materialize, and no official plan has been laid out either by the Bank of England (BOE) or the U.K. government. There is no evidence a CBDC will 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. dollar bill, this symbol has been used for centuries on religious relics. It is believed that the eye inside the triangle is the benevolent eye of god. However, conspiracy theorists have long propagated this as a symbol of the Illuminati. 

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.