Tory chancellor in charge of the biggest cost of living crisis in a generation has appeared on the Sunday Times Rich list
Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty have made it to the elite Sunday Times Rich List for the first time in a listing that will further compound the chancellor’s “out of touch” status.
As millions of voters battle rising energy costs, record nine per cent inflation and higher shop prices the chancellor and his wife are reckoned to have a joint £730 million fortune.
The couple come in at 222nd in the UK wealth list which is issued each year after their finances and tax arrangements blew apart Sunak’s prospects of running for the Tory leadership.
Last month, it was revealed that Murty had non-dom status, which typically applies to someone who was born overseas and spends much of their time in the UK but still considers another country to be their permanent residence or “domicile”.
It has been estimated her non-dom status could have saved her £20 million in taxes on dividends from her shares in Infosys, an Indian IT company founded by her father.
She later agreed to pay UK taxes on her worldwide income.
It then emerged that the chancellor had retained a US green card, to pay taxes in the USA, for a year after becoming chancellor.
Sunak was cleared of breaching the ministerial code by Boris Johnson’s standards adviser but the incident led to him being dubbed “the dude from Silicon Valley” by Labours’ Ed Miliband.
He was also branded the “computer says no” chancellor after he claimed IT problems meant that he couldn’t uprate benefits mid-year to meet soaring inflation.
Benefits increased by 3.1 per cent in April when inflation was at six percent. With inflation now at nine per cent and rising millions of benefit claimants face real terms cut in income.
That should not worry those in the latest ranking of the 250 richest people in Britain which revealed a record 177 billionaires this year, up from 2021.
Overall, the richest 250 in the UK this year are worth £710.72 billion, compared to £658.09 billion in 2021, an 8 per cent rise on last year, the Sunday Times said.
Former Rangers FC owners Sandy and James Easdale have made it onto the Rich List, with a fortune put at £1.363billion.
But one notable absentee from the top of the list is Roman Abramovich.
The former Chelsea owner slid from eighth to 28th in rankings after his finances plummeted from £12.2 billion last year to £6 billion this year following sanctions, the enforced sale of Chelsea and the sharp fall in his Evraz shares.
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