Rishi Sunak: UK has Moved Beyond Judging People for Being Rich

(CTN News) – A fresh estimate put the UK prime minister Rishi Sunak’s fortune at over £500m, but he has stated he is “not bothered” by Labour’s criticism of his affluent family’s tax arrangements because he believes the UK has “moved beyond” judging people based on their wealth.

Because of his wife’s stock holdings, Sunak is the wealthiest British prime minister in history, although he claims he pays no mind to Labour’s attacks on his wealth.

Rishi Sunak’s Response to Labour’s Personal Attacks on His Finances

According to the New Sunday Times rich list, his family’s fortune fell by £200m over the past year due to a decline in the value of his wife’s stock holdings.

The report stated that Rishi Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty, a former hedge fund manager, had a combined net worth of approximately £529m, down from £730m in 2022.

Murty has a little investment in Infosys, the Indian IT giant her wealthy father co-founded and is now worth $64 billion (£52 billion). The decline in the couple’s wealth may be directly attributed to the decline in the value of that investment.

When asked if he is disturbed by assaults on his family, such as Keir Starmer’s criticism of him during the prime minister’s questions for his wife’s non-dom tax status, Sunak stated that people were not bothered by his wealth.

Sunak has been criticized by Labour for being too wealthy and out of touch with the average voter. In one commercial, the target is asked whether they think it’s fair to increase taxes for working people after they and their families have profited from a tax loophole. Yes, Rishi Sunak is responsible for that.

Rishi Sunak stated on the plane to Japan for the G7 summit, “I haven’t fully focused on it or seen all of it. The PMQs portions are generally the only ones I catch, though. Usually, I am not bothered by such things. Most folks watching from home probably aren’t very concerned, either.

Sunak’s Stance: People Are More Concerned with Actions, Not Bank Accounts

What matters to them is how I can improve their quality of life. I believe we’ve progressed past determining someone’s worth based on their bank balance, a topic I discussed at length last summer.

And he said, “These things don’t bother me.”

Last year, Murty was at the focus of a political controversy after it was revealed that she had paid £30,000 yearly to maintain her non-dom status and may have avoided up to £20 million in UK tax.

Murty, realizing that many people felt her tax arrangements were not “compatible with my husband’s job as chancellor,” caved to criticism and said she would pay UK taxes on any income from now on, further endangering Sunak’s position. She went on to say that the “British sense of fairness” was something she admired.

When Rishi Sunak was chancellor in Boris Johnson’s cabinet last year, the couple became the first frontline politicians to be included in the Sunday Times wealthy list, published annually since 1989.

Rishi Sunak argued that people should not hold his riches against him when he was questioned during the August Tory leadership contest about how he could relate to the public during a cost-of-living crisis, considering that he was more wealthy than the queen.

I believe we don’t judge people in this country based on their bank balance but on their character and deeds. Sunak said at a Darlington leadership hustings event, “And sure, I’m incredibly fortunate to be in the circumstance I’m in now, but I wasn’t born like this.