Rishi Sunak investigation: who leaked Akshata Murty’s non-dom status?

A Whitehall inquiry has been launched into a leak that revealed the non-domiciled tax status of Rishi Sunak’s millionaire wife.

The Independent revealed on Thursday that Akshata Murty, an Indian citizen, holds “non-dom” status in the UK for tax purposes, with experts estimating she may have saved £20m as a result of not having to pay UK taxes on her shares in Infosys, an Indian IT company founded by her billionaire father.

The revelations have seen Sunak face allegations of “hypocrisy” given the recent tax hikes he has introduced, reported Sky News, while Conservative colleagues are now questioning the “political judgement” of the once-favoured chancellor who had regularly been touted for the top job.

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Approval ratings tank

The inquiry will look at who knew about Murty’s tax status, as well as who requested access to that information, said Channel 4’s Serena Barker-Singh. “It may even lead to criminal prosecutions as it is illegal to disclose someone’s personal tax status,” she added.

Murty has now said she will pay UK tax on her worldwide income, as she does not want her non-dom status to be a “distraction” for her husband. But the chancellor’s “aggressive response” to the leak had one senior Tory questioning his political “maturity”, said the Mail on Sunday.

“He is probably scuppered,” said one former minister. “What you are now seeing is somebody who is making basic political mistakes that maturity would have avoided.”

A sense of “chaos” over the affair was heightened when removal vans were pictured outside the Sunak’s No. 11 Downing Street grace-and-favour home, although the move is allegedly part of a “long-planned” step for the family to spend more time at their West London home in their daughter’s final year of primary school.

News that the couple have held US green cards while Sunak has been chancellor has further undermined him and “shocked” his party, said The Observer.

Sunak’s approval ratings have tanked over the disastrous revelations, with an Opinium poll showing his approval rating has dropped by three points since late March to 28%. His disapproval rating has risen by eight points to 43% for a net approval rating of -15.

Behind the leak

The leak came amid “fresh tensions” between No. 10 and the Treasury after Sunak spent “weeks resisting [Boris] Johnson’s calls for the government to invest billions in nuclear power stations to wean the UK off Russian oil and gas”, reported The Sunday Times. Treasury insiders also say that Sunak “actively considered resigning” last September when the prime minister “bounced” Sunak into a £12bn pledge to fund social care reform.

The severely strained relationship between No. 10 and 11 has led one Sunak ally to accuse Johnson’s aides of leaking Murty’s tax status: “I know someone is briefing full time against Rishi in No. 10. There are people in there who want to get rid of him because if the PM gets into trouble they want there to be no alternative leader.”

But other sources say that Johnson and his senior aides seemed to have “no idea” about the non-dom status of his wife until it was leaked to the press. One source reportedly close to the chancellor said: “I genuinely don’t think it was them. I think it was a leak from within government to Labour and then to the media.”

Sunak’s team are also reported to believe that the culprit is a so-called “Red Throat” Labour-supporting civil servant who is leaking information to the press, reported the Mail.

Sunak asks for review of declarations

Sunak has now written to the prime minister to ask for an investigation into his own financial affairs, reported The Guardian, after days of press scrutiny over his wife has threatened to derail his career.

The chancellor has asked to be referred to the independent adviser on ministers’ interests, Lord Geidt, and has requested a review of all his declarations since becoming a minister in 2018.

Sunak has said he is confident the review would find “all relevant information was properly declared” on the advice of officials. It follows criticism that his entry on the list of ministers’ interests made “no mention” of Murty’s £690m stake in the Indian company Infosys, “which has UK government contracts”, said the paper.

He is also facing scrutiny over his investments held in a blind management arrangement, with his spokesperson declining to say to say “which jurisdiction they are held in or when the arrangement was formed”, continued The Guardian.

Sunak is likely to come under pressure over whether to keep his US green card, which in his role as chancellor could represent “a conflict of interest with his UK government role”.