After wife’s tax row, new PM goes solo outside Number 10
NEW Prime Ministers usually smile and wave with their spouses as they enter 10 Downing Street for the first time.
But Rishi Sunak appeared on his own in an apparent attempt to shield his wife from the public glare after the row over her tax affairs.
Mr Sunak married Akshata Murphy, 42, a businesswoman, in India in 2009 and they will be living on the famous street with daughters Krishna and Anoushka.
But the PM came under heavy fire after it emerged she had retained her non-dom status and managed to avoid hefty tax bills on a personal business – when her husband was the Chancellor.
It meant that his wife was able to avoid tax on around £11.5million in annual dividends from her stake in her father’s company after she paid £30,000 a year to retain the special status.
Mr Sunak’s solemn solo performance was in contrast to previous Prime Ministers’ poses at the black door.
Liz Truss walked into the most famous address in Britain with husband Hugh O’Leary, while Boris Johnson stood alongside Carrie.
Theresa May was accompanied by husband Philip while David Cameron beamed next to wife Samantha.
Labour’s Tony Blair and Gordon Brown posed with spouses as did Tories John Major and Margaret Thatcher.
Mr Sunak did not use a personally designed lectern for his first speech as there was no time for him to design one. Tory PMs have an input into how they look.
Theresa May’s was made to look “feminine” while David Cameron’s was “statesmanlike”.
Boris Johnson’s blockier design had to withstand him thumping it.
in politics, there is the additional need to promote unity by ensuring that a wide range of interests and groups in the party are represented.
The great mistake that both Liz Truss and Boris Johnson made was that they founded their governments on too narrow a base, thereby missing out on ministerial ability and providing fuel for divisions.
Sunak will never be politically stronger than he is now, and he has used his power wisely to build a cohesive, experienced Cabinet encompassing the left and the right. It is a serious body for a serious moment.
Effective ministers such as James Cleverly at the Foreign Office and Ben Wallace at Defence remain in post, as does the recently appointed Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
There were returns for Michael Gove, one of the Tories’ most innovative minds, making a comeback in charge of Levelling Up, the heavyweight lawyer Dominic Raab, back as Deputy PM and Justice Secretary, the highly competent Grant Shapps as Business Secretary, the able Steve Barclay at Health and the tough-minded Suella Braverman as Home Secretary, a job from which she was forced to resign by Truss only a week ago.
Given that Braverman’s top priority is a crackdown on illegal migration, this is a move that will please the Eurosceptics, though it is also a highly political reward for her crucial decision to back Sunak rather than Johnson in the leadership struggle.
But a leader must be a good butcher as well and Sunak showed his lack of sentimentality by removing a host of ministers like Brandon Lewis, Sir Robert Buckland and the Chief Whip Wendy Morton, who carried the blame for last week’s fiasco over the Commons vote on fracking.
Cabinet-making can be a brutal, bruising exercise. But Sunak yesterday showed he is a leader of decisiveness and shrewdness. The Opposition knows it has a fight on its hands.