ANAS Sarwar’s household has received almost a quarter of a million pounds in unearned income since he boasted of cutting financial ties with the family business.
Newly published accounts show the Scottish Labour leader’s wife has enjoyed around £240,000 worth of share dividends since Sarwar have up his holding in the firm, The Herald on Sunday reported.
The Glasgow MSP announced in September 2017 that he would give up his shareholding in the cash and carry business started by his dad, the former Labour MP Mohammad Sarwar.
His finances were under intense scrutiny during that year's Scottish Labour leadership election, which ultimately saw Sarwar lose out to Richard Leonard.
Sarwar, who sent his children to the private school Hutchesons’ Grammar, was criticised for taking dividend income from the family firm.
The Herald revealed he had received around £20,000 a year for 13 years while a 23% shareholder in United Wholesale (Scotland) Limited.
Company accounts showed that by 2017 he and his wife had received more than £500,000 in dividends from the firm.
He initially denied taking dividend income from his £4.8 million share, then admitted he had.
When then deputy Scottish Labour leader Alex Rowley accused the SNP of siding “with the millionaires rather than the millions” at an FMQs in the middle of the contest, Nicola Sturgeon joked it was unfair “to personalise this debate by bringing Anas Sarwar into it”.
Sarwar also faced questions over working practices at the family firm, which at the time paid some staff – who had no trade union recognition – less than the living wage.
Anxious to draw a line under the controversy, Sarwar made a public show of relinquishing his entire shareholding in UWS, transferring it to a trust fund for his three young sons.
His campaign claimed it meant he would be “unable to access the assets or take any remuneration for his lifetime, demonstrating his unswerving commitment to public service”.
The terms of the trust meant he could “never access the assets”, which would be held for the sole use of his children when they became adults.
However the arrangement did not include Sarwar’s wife, Furheen, an NHS dentist.
The UWS accounts since 2017 show that Furheen Sarwar retained 100 “Class B shares”, and that each of these generated a £400 dividend every year since.
It means Sarwar’s family has been entitled to £40,000 in unearned dividends each year since he relinquished his own shares, amounting to £240,000 by the end of 2022.
The accounts for 2022, published earlier this month, show Furheen Sarwar continued to be paid a £400 dividend for each of her Class B shares.
Even after higher-rate dividend tax, the family would have been due more than £140,000 in dividend income by the end of 2021, potentially rising to nearly £170,000 by the end of 2022.
The extra was more than the average Scottish wage after tax, but not always enough to cover the fees for the couple’s three children at Sarwar’s alma mater.
The figures emerged as Labour makes the cost-of-living crisis a key plank of its General Election campaign and accuses Rishi Sunak of being “out of touch” with voters.
Scottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said: "Anas Sarwar made a big show about his interests when he was first trying to get into the Scottish Labour leadership.
“And that's what his man of the people act has always been – a show."
The Herald reported that when asked about Sarwar’s family income and his wife’s shares, Scottish Labour did not dispute any of the figures but declined to comment.
