His wife, Akshata Murty, is the daughter of a
billionaire; their garden parties are one of the hottest tickets in their home
town
Caroline
Davies
Mon 24 Oct
2022 15.31 BST
The
spotlight is on the family preparing to move into No 10 as Rishi Sunak is
poised to take up residence along with his wealthy wife and their two
daughters.
Sunak was
born in Southampton in 1980 to Indian parents who had moved to the UK from east
Africa. His father was a GP and his mother ran her own pharmacy. The eldest of
three children, Sunak was educated at a private boarding school, Winchester
College, and went on to study politics, philosophy and economics at the
University of Oxford, where he was awarded a first-class degree.
He later
gained a master’s of business administration (MBA) at Stanford University,
where he met Akshata Murty, his future wife.
Murty, 42,
is the daughter of the Indian billionaire NR Narayana Murthy, often described
as the Bill Gates of India, who founded the software company Infosys. According
to reports, his daughter has a 0.91% stake in the company, worth about £700m.
She studied
economics and French at the private Claremont McKenna College in California,
then earned a diploma at a fashion college before working at Deloitte and Unilever
and studying for an MBA at Stanford.
The couple
married in her home town of Bengaluru in a two-day ceremony in 2009 attended by
1,000 guests. Their two children, Krishna and Anoushka, appeared with Sunak on
the campaign trail in the leadership contest against Liz Truss during the
summer.
Murty runs
her own fashion label, Akshata Designs, and is also the director of a venture
capital firm founded by her father in 2010. She is listed on LinkedIn as
director of the capital and private equity firm Catamaran Ventures, the gym
chain Digme Fitness and the gentlemen’s outfitters New & Lingwood.
In April it
was revealed that Murty was a non-domiciled UK resident, meaning she avoided UK
taxes on her international earnings in return for paying an annual charge of
£30,000.
Without
that non-dom status she could have been liable for more than £20m of UK taxes
on these windfalls, it was reported. After a public outcry, her spokesperson
announced she would start paying UK taxes on her overseas earnings to relieve
political pressure on her husband.
Sunak
himself admitted holding a US green card – signalling an intention eventually
to become an American citizen – until October 2021, months after becoming
chancellor.
From 2001
to 2004 Sunak was an analyst for the investment bank Goldman Sachs, and later
he was a partner in two hedge funds.
He was
elected as the MP for Richmond in North Yorkshire in May 2015. It is one of the
country’s safest seats, having been Tory since 1906.
The
couple’s garden parties are one of the hottest tickets in town. They have been
known to splash out on feasts of roast venison, canapés and champagne, but most
get-togethers are less extravagant. He was re-elected in 2019 with a majority
of 27,210.
Between
2018 and 2019 he served as parliamentary undersecretary of state for local
government, before entering cabinet in 2019 as chief secretary to the Treasury.
In February 2020 he became one of the youngest chancellors in history, and he
presided over the budget throughout the pandemic.
As an MP
and chancellor, Sunak’s government salary was £151,649.
The Sunaks
are understood to own four properties, according to reports. These include a
Grade II-listed manor house in the village of Kirby Sigston, near
Northallerton, in his Richmond constituency, which was bought for £1.5m in
2015; and a five-bedroom townhouse in South Kensington, London, which records
show was last sold for £4.5m in 2010. The couple also own a flat in South
Kensington and a penthouse apartment with views of the Pacific Ocean in Santa
Monica, California.
The couple
made the Sunday Times rich list for the first time in May 2022 with a combined
fortune of £730m – making Sunak the first politician to appear on the list
since it began in 1989.
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