The son of an Irish nurse and a Indian-born doctor, he was Ireland’s youngest and first gay leader. The future Irish leader was born on 18 January 1979 in Dublin. His father Ashok – a doctor from Mumbai – met his mother Miriam, an Irish nurse, while they were both working in Slough in Berkshire. The couple settled in Ireland in the 1970s. Mr Varadkar followed his father into medicine, qualifying as a GP in 2010.

He became a councillor aged 24 and, in 2007, he was elected to the Irish parliament, Dáil Éireann. He rose to power after a turbulent decade of boom to bust. Ireland’s Celtic Tiger economy crashed spectacularly in 2007 amid the worldwide financial crisis, and the previous government had to accept a £71bn international bailout.

In the aftermath, Fine Gael came to power at the head of a coalition in 2011 and Mr Varadkar got his first ministerial appointment as transport, tourism and sport. By 2014, the doctor had become Ireland’s health minister. At the age of 38, he became Ireland’s youngest prime minister.