Rishi Sunak made history as the first Chancellor of the Exchequer to celebrate Diwali, lighting candles on the steps of his official residence at No. 11 Downing Street.
Two years later, on the day of the same festival, the 42-year-old Conservative was preparing to move into the prime minister’s lodgings next door, as both the first person of color and the first Hindu to take the country’s top job.
He is at the same time a symbol of how far the country has come on race and how entrenched the economic and class barriers to social mobility have become.