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LAY OFF MY MISSUS
My wife loves her country just like I love mine, says Rishi Sunak as he defends millionaire spouse over tax row ‘smears’
RISHI Sunak yesterday accused Labour of a dirty tricks campaign against his wife — branding their tax attacks “unpleasant smears”.
The Chancellor’s multi-millionaire Indian-born missus Akshata Murty has non-dom status — meaning she does not have to pay UK tax on the millions she earns abroad.
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Mr Sunak insisted every penny owed in the UK is paid and said: “To smear my wife to get at me is awful.”
He added: “She loves her country like I love mine.”
Heiress and businesswoman Akshata Murty is an Indian citizen and insists she pays tax there on her vast fortune.
She also pays around £30,000 a year for non-domicile status — meaning she can live here but not pay UK tax on income she earns abroad.
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On Wednesday Ms Murty, who lives with the Chancellor at 11 Downing Street, claimed the non-dom status was given to her automatically as an Indian citizen.
But yesterday tax experts said that she must choose to seek the perk each year.
Critics claim more than £4million in taxes has been swerved.
And Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it would be “breathtaking hypocrisy” if she is reducing her bill while the Chancellor raised taxes for millions of Brits.
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Heiress is 'richer than the Queen'
By Harry Cole
THE Chancellor’s wife Akshata Murty is said to be richer than the Queen.
Her dad Narayana Murthy founded IT giants Infosys in India in 1981, amassing £3billion when he sold in 2014.
Ms Murty retains a stake of 0.91 per cent, said to be worth £690million.
She also reportedly received £11.6million in dividends last year.
However her non-domiciled status meant she did not pay tax on that here, which could have meant a £4.4million sum to the Treasury.
Labour’s Tulip Siddiq said the failure to pay tax on that was “staggering”.
Opponents said she had potentially avoided up to £20million in UK tax by being non dom.
Another business venture she invested in — boutique health firm Digme Fitness — collapsed into administration last year, leaving the taxpayer with debts of £415,000.
It received between £310,000 and £635,000 in furlough between December 2020 and last September.
Yesterday Mr Sunak, 41, insisted every penny owed is paid. He said he would never dream of asking his wife to give up Indian citizenship for the sake of his political career.
The Chancellor said his wife was domiciled in India and had never based herself anywhere else offshore.
And he said she would one day move back to her homeland to care for her parents.
Under the rules, people can be granted non-dom status if they live in the UK but intend to return home.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Mr Sunak said: “People, I don’t think, have an issue with the fact that there’s an Indian woman living in Downing Street.
“I would hope that most fair-minded people would understand — though I appreciate that it is a confusing situation that she is from another country.”
And he insisted: “Every single penny that she earns in the UK she pays UK taxes on, of course she does.
“And every penny that she earns internationally, for example in India, she would pay the full taxes on that.
“That is how the system works for people like her who are international who have moved here.”
Rejecting claims of hypocrisy or tax avoidance, Mr Sunak said non-dom status had been tarnished by some British-born people who have attempted to use it to dodge tax.
People, I don’t think, have an issue with the fact that there’s an Indian woman living in Downing Street. I would hope that most fair-minded people would understand — though I appreciate that it is a confusing situation that she is from another country.
And he insisted this was not about attempting to pay less tax, saying: “The rates don’t make a difference.”
The Chancellor added: “I can appreciate people find this situation confusing.
"But what it comes down to is, my wife was born in India, raised in India. Her family home is in India, she obviously has a very close connection. She has investments and a career independent of me.
“She had this well before we met, before she moved to this country.
“It wouldn’t be reasonable or fair to ask her to sever ties with her country because she happens to be married to me. She loves her country. Like I love mine, I would never dream of giving up my British citizenship. And I imagine most people wouldn’t.”
Ms Murty is listed on careers site LinkedIn as director of capital at private equity firm Catamaran Ventures, gym chain Digme Fitness and gentlemen’s outfitters New & Lingwood.
She is also reported to hold a 0.91 per cent stake in Infosys, founded by her now-billionaire father Narayana.
Although living in the UK she chooses to pay tax on her foreign earnings abroad — legally — but according to critics unethically.
But Mr Sunak said she is not a British citizen and cannot hold dual citizenship while remaining an Indian — so pays tax in both countries.
He added: “These are her choices, right? She’s a private citizen, and of course I support my wife’s choices. She’s not her husband’s possession.
It wouldn’t be reasonable or fair to ask her to sever ties with her country because she happens to be married to me. She loves her country. Like I love mine, I would never dream of giving up my British citizenship. And I imagine most people wouldn’t.
“Yes, he’s in politics, and we get that but I think you know, we get that she can be someone independent of her husband in her own right.
“She has had her own career. She has her own investments and is paying the taxes that she owes in the UK. She is 100 per cent doing everything this country asks of her.”
But he said it was unfair to go after his wife because she is a “private citizen”. He added: “I’m an elected politician. So I know what I signed up for.
“And you know that my motivation in this is trying to do the right thing for the country.
“And I know that that’s not always popular. So I didn’t get into this to have popular headlines, I got into this to do what I think is right.
“And I’m signed up for that and you know, you’re going to get criticism for the decisions you make. But it’s different when people are trying to attack you by coming at your family and particularly your wife. It’s unpleasant, especially when she hasn’t done anything wrong.
“She hasn’t broken any rules. She’s followed the letter of the law.
“And if she was living here and didn’t just happen to be married to me this obviously would not be at all relevant.”
He went on: “There’s a difference between people who are elected and, obviously, rightly subjected to scrutiny and accountability. And that's completely fair and reasonable.
“But their families are not elected politicians. They are private citizens. And especially as she hasn’t done anything wrong.”
On her non-dom status, he said: “I appreciate that in the past British people were trying to use this thing to basically not pay any tax in the UK. I can see that from my inbox, right? That’s a very clear perception.
“But that’s not the case here. She’s not a British citizen. She’s from another country. She’s from India.
“That’s where her family is . . . that’s where she, you know, ultimately will want to go and look after her parents as they get older.
“She pays full UK tax on every penny that she earns here in the same way that she pays full international tax on every penny that she earns internationally, say, in India.”
He claimed people are using her family wealth to attack him, saying: “These are attempted smears of my father-in-law, who I’m just enormously proud of.
“That guy came from nothing and has created a world-class business that employs I think about a quarter of a million people around the world and changed the face of India.
“If I achieved a tenth of what my father-in-law achieved in his life, I’d be a happy person. I’m really proud of what he’s achieved”.
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He added: “To attempt to smear him, to smear my wife to get at me is awful, right?”
Asked if he believed his family were victims of a Labour smear campaign, Mr Sunak replied: “Yeah.”
'Judge people by their values'
By Harry Cole
RISHI Sunak has hit back at claims he is too rich to be an in touch politician.
Admitting he is very well off, the Chancellor insisted “this shouldn’t be about your wealth, it should be about your values”.
He added: “I don’t judge people by how much money they have in their bank account. I judge them by their character.”
He said he had come from humble beginnings even if now he was “successful financially”
Probed on whether his super-rich lifestyle would seem alien to most voters, he hit back: “My grandfather grew up in a rural village in northern India with no running water, no electricity.
“That’s pretty alien to most people, right?
“What’s more important than how much money is in my bank account are my values and those were the values I was raised with.
“I’m sitting here in this office as the result of an enormous amount of sacrifice and hard work and kindness from people.”
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