How Rishi gets rich

Can the parliamentary register of financial interests really be regarded as fit for purpose? Anyone reading the Sunday Times Rich List would gain a much greater insight into the household income of Rishi Sunak than the chancellor’s terse entry in what is supposed to be the official record of his financial interests.

All that records is a private donation more than a year ago of £50,000 and a flat in London that gives him and his wife, Akshata Murthy, a rental income in excess of £10,000 a year.

The new list of ministers’ interests just published by an independent adviser is just as uninformative. Sunak makes no mention of the 0.93% stake his wife has in the family tech support business Infosys, which amounted to 38,957,096 shares in March 2022. These are currently worth around £600m. Her dividend payment on the shares amounted to £12.4m for 2021-22.

Also unrecorded is Murthy’s 4.4% interest in the insolvent gym business Digme Fitness, even though she is still listed as a director on the Companies House website; and the couple’s extensive property interests – which include a mansion in Yorkshire and an apartment in Santa Monica – also go unrecorded.

Sunak’s disclosure for his wife is limited to an acknowledgement in the list of ministers’ interests of her ownership of a venture capital investment company called Catamaran Ventures, which the couple co-founded in June 2013 and with which Sunak ceased to be involved after becoming chancellor.
The parliamentary registers may barely hint at Sunak’s real household wealth, but he has a get-out clause in new guidance issued in relation to the assets of ministerial spouses. “While there may be interests of close family of a minister that might be thought to give rise to a conflict with their ministerial responsibilities, it is also important to consider their right to a degree of privacy over their affairs,” it states. “Accordingly, interests which are not directly relevant or on consideration do not in fact give rise to a conflict, but may give rise to public comment, are not within the scope of the List.”