Rishi Just Got Even Richer: Sunak And His Wife Climb Up List Of UK's Wealthiest People
Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty have raked in the money over the last year and are now in the top 250 wealthiest people in the UK.
The prime minister and his wife were already the richest people to ever live in No.10 Downing Street – and are just getting even richer.
They have climbed up The Sunday Times’ Rich List in the last year moving from 275th place to to 245th, as their net worth soared from £529m in 2023 to £651m.
For context, that means they are wealthier than King Charles, whose own fortunes crept up from £600m to a not inconsiderable £610m this year.
Most of their wealth comes from Murty’s shareholding in Infosys, an IT company co-founded by her father and based in Bangalore, India.
Shares have ballooned in value over the last 12 months, increasing by £108.8m to nearly £590m.
Murty received £13m in dividends over the last year from Infosys and is expected to receive another £10.5m this year.
This source of income was a source of great controversy at one point as it was revealed Murty had “non-dom” tax status.
That meant she claimed her permanent home was outside the UK and therefore she only had to pay tax on earnings made here – not on the Bangalore-based Infosys dividends.
She was able to avoid paying £20.6m in tax because of this status.
To make matters worse for the couple, her husband was the chancellor when this information made it to the media.
Murty later agreed to pay UK tax on her overseas income from 2021.
Murty is still the breadwinner in their household by a long shot – although it’s worth remembering the prime minister is a former hedge fund manager.
Sunak’s MP (£91,346) salary and PM salary (£80,807) account for just 6.5% of his personal income, with his hefty investment portfolio returns making up the rest.
He made £2.2m in 2022/23, more than 60 times the average British salary, according to the Rich List. It’s not known how much he made per year before entering parliament in 2015.
But, this is not the wealthiest Sunak and Murty have ever been.
Prior to Sunak’s election as Tory leader and PM in late 2022, the pair were worth an estimated £730m.
Still, this year’s increase is unlikely to do Sunak any favours in the public eye.
The news comes at a time when the Conservatives are dragging in the polls and the public already associate the prime minister solely with being “rich”.
Sunak claims that he does not mind being asked about his money, and said last year that “very few people bring it up with me”.