Britain’s new Prime Minister Sunak and his wife share the rich list

British Prime Minister Liz Truss has personally announced her resignation as prime minister after 45 days in office, becoming the shortest serving British prime minister. After the news came to light, former Prime Minister Johnson announced he would not run for the leadership of the Conservative Party, and Commons leader Penny Mordaunt withdrew. It also enabled former finance minister Rishi Sunak to make history by winning the backing of more than 100 Conservative MPS to become party leader and the next prime minister, the first Indian-born prime minister in British history.

Born in 1980 in Kenya, Sunak’s parents were of standard Indian descent. His father was a doctor and his mother a pharmacist, and his family emigrated to Britain in 1960. Sunak is of Indian descent, but he grew up as a “super elite”. He attended Winchester School, an exclusive boarding school, where he served as a student representative, and went to Oxford to read politics, philosophy and economics. He also went to the University of Denver on a scholarship to study for an MBA. He met, fell in love and married Akshata Murthy, the daughter of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy, with whom he has two daughters.

Rishi Sunak, will be appointed by King Charles III on October 25, becoming the country’s first coloured and first Hindu prime minister. Sunak, a former Goldman Sachs executive who co-founded a hedge fund, and his wife, a successful businesswoman from a wealthy Indian family, shared the rich list earlier this year. Now they will take their two young daughters to 10 Downing Street, trying to lead Britain out of its economic turmoil.

Sunak went on to work at investment bank Goldman Sachs and two hedge funds before entering politics in 2014. According to the Guardian, Sunak and his wife are worth 730 million pounds (about 26.2 billion yuan), while Charles is worth between 300 million and 350 million pounds (about 10.8 billion yuan). If he wins 10 Downing Street, he will be the first prime minister in history to be worth more than the King.

Mr Sunak, who ran against Mr Truss for the party leadership in the summer, was unpalatable at the time for his warnings about inflation and his commitment to fiscal conservatism, but is now seen as a visionary by Mr Truss. Even so, Sunak has been involved in some scandals, including a fine for “partying”; His wife, who is still an Indian citizen, was found to be an “undomiciled resident” in the UK, using her status to evade tax. Mr Akshata eventually declared that he would voluntarily pay UK tax on his worldwide income, although he remained undomiciled.

Sunak was born in the port city of Southampton, England, in 1980 to Indian immigrants from East Africa. His father was a doctor and his mother ran a pharmacy, The Guardian reported. The eldest son attended boarding school before studying politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford, where he graduated with a first-class degree.

Sunak went on to earn a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) at Stanford University and met his wife, Akzata. Akshata Murty. Sunak spent four years at investment bank Goldman Sachs (GS) from 2001 to 2004, then worked as a partner at two hedge funds. Elected to the House of Commons in 2015, he became Britain’s youngest ever chancellor of the exchequer in 2020 and one of the wealthiest cabinet members, presiding over the government’s budget during the coronavirus pandemic.

The picture
Sunak, Britain’s new prime minister, and his wife Muti have two daughters. Taken from rishisunak.com
Muti’s father is Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Indian software giant Infosys. Murthy is known as “India’s Birgez” and “Father of India’s IT industry”. Muti also has a reported 0.91 percent stake in Infosys, which has a market value of about 700 million pounds ($25.6 billion).

Muti, who was the same age as Sunak, studied French at Claremont McKenna College in California, then earned a diploma in fashion and worked at Deloitte and Unilever, Later, he went to Stanford University for a master’s degree in business Administration.

Sunak and Muti were married in 2009 in Muti’s hometown in Garol, India, in a two-day ceremony attended by thousands of guests. They have since had daughters, Krishna and Anoushka, whom Mr. Sunak toured with during the Conservative leadership campaign this summer.

Muti is not the traditional stay-at-home Indian wife. She runs her own fashion brand, Akshata Designs, and is on the board of Catamaran Ventures, founded by her father. She also serves on the boards of UK gym chain Digme Fitness and gentlemen’s clothing chain New & Lingwood.

But it emerged in April that Muti is “Non-domiciled residents” in the UK, meaning she will not have to pay UK tax on her overseas earnings for 30,000 pounds a year. On her income, if she holds a general permanent residence permit, she could be liable for 20 million pounds ($730m) in taxes. After the criticism, Muti’s spokesman announced that she would pay taxes on foreign earnings to avoid jeopardizing her husband’s political career.

Mr. Sunak had his own status controversy, admitting to holding a green card until last October, when he had been chancellor for several months.

Sunak and his wife share four valuable homes in Britain and the United States, and his annual salaries as a member of Parliament and chancellor of the Exchequer total 151,649 pounds, according to the report.

Sunak and his wife made their debut on the Sunday Times Rich List in May 2022 with a combined fortune of £730 million, making Sunak the first British politician to make the list since 1989.