BRITAIN’S new chancellor is the son of a Southampton pharmacist and a GP – and once worked as a waiter in one of the city’s Indian restaurants “for fun”.

Rishi Sunak, 39, was unexpectedly elevated to the second top job in government on Thursday after Sajid Javid’s shock resignation from the cabinet.

Kuti Miah, owner of Kuti’s Brasserie, says he has known the chancellor since he was two months old and that the Sunak family regularly spent Christmas Eve at the restaurant.

The chancellor was born in Southampton to Yashvir and Usha Sunak, who are both from India’s Punjab and who emigrated to the UK from East Africa in the 1960s.

His father was a GP in the city, while his mother ran Sunak Pharmacy in Burgess Road from 1995. The family sold the business in 2014 and it is now called Bassett Pharmacy.

Kuti Miah told the Daily Echo: “I’ve known Rishi since he was a little baby. His father Yashvir is my very good friend.

“He grew up in front of me and I always said Rishi is going to be an important person because he was so very clever and nice. They’ve never missed Christmas Eve here for the last 25 years.”

He said the future chancellor had worked some shifts as a waiter “for fun” because he liked meeting people.

The chancellor has written on his website: “I grew up watching my parents serve our local community with dedication. My dad was an NHS family GP and my mum ran her own local chemist shop.”

The future MP went to private school Winchester College. He gained a first class degree in politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford and won a Fullbright scholarship to do a masters in business administration at Stanford University in California.

He wrote that “my parents sacrificed a great deal so I could attend good schools”.

At Stanford, he met his future wife Akshata Murphy, the daughter of an Indian billionaire. They have two daughters.

He worked at investment bank Goldman Sachs and for a hedge fund before forming a new hedge fund company.

He has been an MP for only five years, after being selected to succeed former Tory leader William Hague in Richmond, Yorkshire.

His shifts at Kuti’s came in the 1990s when the business was at Oxford Road. It is at the city’s Royal Pier today and Mr Miah hopes the chancellor might be able to join his parents for one of their Christmas Eve visits.

Mr Sunak visited Southampton in his role as chief secretary to the Treasury shortly before his promotion to chancellor.

Mr Miah said he was excited to hear of Mr Sunak’s promotion.

“I can’t explain how happy I was. He deserved to be going places like this because he’s very good. I believe he will turn things around a lot,” he said.