'My wife loves India; proud of my father-in-law': Sunak fights back

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has launched a fightback against the Opposition’s attack over the non-domicile tax status of his India-born wife Akshata Murthy, daughter of Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy, saying she loves her country and would eventually return there to care for her parents.

Akshata, whose mother Sudha Murthy is a philanthropist, was targeted by the Opposition over her non-domicile tax status, which means she is not legally bound to pay tax in the UK on income earned overseas.

“She had this well before we met, before she moved to this country,” Sunak told The Sun newspaper.

“It wouldn’t be reasonable or fair to ask her to sever ties with her country because she happens to be married to me. She loves her country. Like I love mine, I would never dream of giving up my British citizenship. And I imagine most people wouldn’t,” he said.

Akshata is accused of using her non-domicile status as a tax saving of millions but a spokesperson for the 42-year-old entrepreneur said she complies with UK tax laws as a resident and the tax categorisation is because India did not recognise dual citizenship.

“People, I don't think, have an issue with the fact that there’s an Indian woman living in Downing Street. I would hope that most fair-minded people would understand — though I appreciate that it is a confusing situation that she is from another country,” Sunak said. Akshata owns around 0.9 per cent stake in Infosys. 

Sunak also described his father-in-law as someone who created a world-class business from scratch. “These are attempted smears on my father-in-law, who I’m just enormously proud of. That guy came from nothing and has created a world-class business that employs I think about a quarter of a million people around the world and changed the face of India.” 

He said: “If I achieved a tenth of what my father-in-law achieved in his life, I’d be a happy person. I’m really proud of what he's achieved.” 

The 41-year-old senior Conservative Party politician, until recently seen as the frontrunner to succeed Boris Johnson as British Prime Minister, admitted that the so-called “non-dom” categorisation has been misused by some ultra-rich to avoid taxes but that is not the case with his family.

He said: “I appreciate that in the past British people were trying to use this thing to basically not pay any tax in the UK... But that's not the case here. She's not a British citizen. She’s from another country. She’s from India.

“That’s where her family is… that’s where she, you know, ultimately will want to go and look after her parents as they get older. She pays full UK tax on every penny that she earns here in the same way that she pays full international tax on every penny that she earns internationally, say, in India.” 

The fightback came following allegations from the Opposition Labour benches of “breathtaking hypocrisy” by the finance minister who is in charge of imposing taxes as Sunak insisted that his wife had not broken any rules.