UK PM Sunak slammed by watchdog over wife's stake in firm benefiting from state funding

A British parliamentary watchdog on Thursday (August 24) said that UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak should have declared that his wife Akshata Murty had a stake in a company that was set to benefit from government cash. When he came to power after the short-lived tenure of Liz Truss and the scandal-hit premiership of Boris Johnson, Sunak had vowed "integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level."

But within a year in office, Sunak made news for breaking rules as he received police fine for not wearing seatbelt. He received another fine for breaking Covid lockdown rules during the time he was finance minister under Johnson.

After receiving a complaint about Sunak's comments to a committee of senior MPs, a probe was started by House of Commons Standards Commissioner Daniel Greenberg in April.

Sunak failed to mention to them and in a follow-up letter that his wife, Akshata Murty, held shares in a childminding firm that would receive additional state funding.

Sunak told Greenberg that he was advised that Murty's stake in the company "did not meet the test of relevance to require publication on the List of Minister's Interests".

However, the commissioner disagreed and said that it "was a relevant interest that should have been declared" and he had "a duty to correct the record".

The commissioner concluded that the omission may have arisen out of confusion about what was required and was "inadvertent"

AFP quoted Sunak's spokesperson who said that the matter had been resolved

"The prime minister takes seriously his responsibilities to register and declare all relevant interests," he added.

Sunak was previously criticised after it emerged that Akshata Murty, daughter of co-founder of Indian IT giant Infosys had so-called "non-dom" status.

This actually meant that she had not declared her earnings from the dividends she got from the firm for UK tax purposes. After a furore, Murty later said she would include them.

Critics of Sunak, a wealthy former investment banker, say that he is out of touch with ordinary voters struggling with rising costs.

(With inputs from agencies)

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