• Ar
  • Es
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Feature
  • Videos
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Feature
Videos
Infographs
In Pictures
  1. Home
  2. News
  3. Europe
  4. Britain has moved on from judging people for being rich: Sunak
Europe

Britain has moved on from judging people for being rich: Sunak

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: News websites
  • 20 May 08:36
  • 1 Shares

New estimates reveal that UK PM Rishi Sunak's fortune fell to approximately £500m.

  • Britain has moved on from judging people for being rich: Sunak
    Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, right, and his wife Akshata Murty arrive by plane in Hiroshima after their visit to Tokyo, ahead of the G-7 Summit in Japan, Thursday, May 18, 2023. (AP)

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak expressed he is "not bothered" by Labour's criticism of his wealthy family's tax arrangements and assumes that the UK has "moved beyond" judging people based on their money, as a new estimate predicts that the UK prime minister's fortune fell to approximately £500m.

Britain's wealthiest prime minister said he never paid attention to Labour's personal attacks on his finances. 

According to the New Sunday Times rich list, his family's wealth has plummeted by £200 million in the last year due to a drop in the value of his wife's shareholding. It wrote that Sunak, a former hedge fund manager, and his wife, Akshata Murty, had an estimated worth of about £529m, a fall from £730m in 2022.

Murty has low ownership in Infosys, a $64 billion (£52 billion) Indian information technology corporation co-founded by her millionaire father. The value of that stake has dropped, causing the couple's finances to plummet.

When reporters asked Sunak if he was worried by personal attacks on his family, such as Keir Starmer criticizing him during the prime minister's inquiries about his wife's non-dom tax status, he stated that his riches did not bother others.

Sunak has also been accused by Labour of being out of touch with regular people due to his family's wealth. One attack advert asks: “Do you think it’s right to raise taxes for working people when your family has benefited from a tax loophole? Rishi Sunak does.”

Read next: UK's Sunak has electrical grid refitted to accommodate his heated pool

He stated on the plane to Japan for the G7 summit, "I haven't really focused on it or seen all of it." I probably hear the bits at PMQs, but not the rest. These items don't bother me in general. I doubt that most people sitting at home are much concerned about these issues.

“What they care about is what am I doing for them to make their lives better. As I talked a lot about last summer, I think we’ve moved beyond judging people by what’s in their bank account.” He added: “These things don’t bother me.”

Murty caused a political uproar last year when it was revealed that she had avoided up to £20 million in UK tax by being non-domiciled and paying £30,000 a year to maintain the status.

With Sunak's position under threat, Murty bowed to pressure and said she would pay UK taxes on all future income, after realizing many people thought her tax arrangements were incompatible with her husband's status as chancellor. She went on to say that she admired the "British sense of fairness."

He was selected to the Sunday Times wealthy list for the first time last year when he was chancellor in Boris Johnson's cabinet, making him the first frontline politician to be named to the annual list since its creation in 1989.

When questioned during the Tory leadership election in August about how he could relate to the public-facing cost-of-living crisis, Sunak responded people should not hold his riches against him. “I think in our country, we judge people not by their bank account, we judge them by their character and their actions. And yes, I’m really fortunate to be in the situation I’m in now, but I wasn’t born like this,” Sunak told a leadership hustings event in Darlington.

Read next: UK PM Rishi Sunak asked homeless man if he 'works in business'

  • Rishi Sunak
  • United Kingdom

Trending Now

All
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Source: Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images.

British government warned against Swiss-style, EU ties

Most Read

Haaretz

Mossad agent killed in Italy part of anti-Iran mission: Israeli media

  • Europe
  • 3 Jun
In this image released by the Italian firefighters, a helicopter searches for missing passengers after a tourist boat capsized in a storm on Italy's Lago Maggiore in the northern Lombardy region, May 28, 2023 (AP)

Top Israeli intelligence official dead in Italy: Israeli media

  • Europe
  • 29 May
US linguist Noam Chomsky, who was among 550 academics who signed the petition calling on Glasgow University to respect free speech (AFP)

Chomsky: EU will deindustrialize if it abides by US-run world order

  • Europe
  • 31 May
Flags of the euro-critical Alternative for Germany AFD party are held up by supporters in front of the Brandenburg Gate during an AFD election campaign rally in Berlin September 16, 2013. (Reuters)

Poll shows increased support for Germany's AfD

  • Europe
  • 28 May

Read this

All
Israeli soldiers gather in front of a gate of a military base following a deadly shootout in southern occupied Palestine along the Egyptian border, Saturday, June 3, 2023 (AP)
Palestine

Ex-IOF chief of staff says Hezbollah firepower among top in the world

  • Today
Egyptian policeman's operation part of multifront war: Israeli media
Palestine

Egyptian policeman's operation part of multifront war: Israeli media

  • 3 Jun
A Chinese J-11 military fighter jet flies above the Taiwan Strait near Pingtan, the closest land of mainland China to the island of Taiwan, in southeastern China's Fujian Province on Aug. 5, 2022 (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)
Europe

German defense minister asked China to stop hiring ex-air force pilots

  • 3 Jun
Tehran ready to sign long-term agreement with Brazil: Iranian FM
Africa

Tehran ready to sign long-term agreement with Brazil: Iranian FM

  • 3 Jun
Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS