Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is one of the wealthiest people in the United Kingdom. He is so rich that the common citizens in Britain have expressed fears he could be out of touch with the tough economic situation in the country.
Sunak and his wife, Indian tech heiress Akshata Murty, have an estimated fortune of about £730 million /Ksh100 billion - according to the Sunday Times Rich List.
The joint fortune of Sunak and his wife Murty ranked them 222 on the UK's wealthiest 250 people list.
The couple’s money comes primarily from Murty’s stake in her father’s company, Infosys. She also owns the start-up incubator Catamaran Ventures UK and has shares in several other companies.
The couple has at least three homes in Britain, as well as a mansion in Santa Monica, Califonia, USA.
Millionaire in his 20s
Before entering politics, Sunak was a partner at two highly-profitable hedge funds. From 2001 to 2004, he was an analyst for the investment bank Goldman Sachs.
According to The Times, the new British PM was a multi-millionaire in his mid-twenties while working as an investment banker.
However, most part of Sunak's current wealth is from his marriage to Akshata Murthy who has shares in dozens company especially those owned by her Indian billionaire father Narayana Murthy who is worth $4.5 billion/Ksh545 billion.
Akshata Murty, who is still an Indian citizen, married Rishi Sunak in August 2009. The two met at Stanford University where they fell in love and got into a relationship.
Scandal
Sunak became very popular while serving as the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister) as he dished out money during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In April 2022, Sunak's rich wife was at the centre of a tax scandal after it emerged that she had been filing in the UK as a non-domiciled resident, which allowed her to avoid paying British taxes on the substantial income she earned abroad.
If an individual is 'non-domicile' it means that they consider (and have declared) their permanent home to be outside of the country they are currently in, even if they live in that secondary country all year round.
Sunak's wife being an Indian citizen meant she exploited her non-domiciled status in the UK to avoid paying taxes on all her international earnings, something she agreed to end.
It was reported that Akshata Murty saved around £20 million/Ksh2.7 billion in taxes on dividends from her shares in Infosys.
Salary
Rishi Sunak has been the Leader of the Conservative Party since October 24, 2022. He was previously the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2020 to 2022 and Chief Secretary of the Treasury from 2019 to 2020.
Rishi Sunak's salary when he was Chancellor was £151,649/Ksh20,828,193 a year. As the Prime Minister, he is expected to earn £161,401/Ksh22,167,579.
