Sunak: ‘Rish List’ roll call
INSTEAD of being praised for having made a success of his life in Britain – as he would be if he lived in the US – the chancellor Rishi Sunak has been attacked for making his debut on the
Sunday Times Rich List.
One tabloid referred sarcastically to the roll call of the wealthiest people in the UK as the “Rish List”.
Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty, are valued together at £730 million, placing them at number 222.
Mirroring Eastern Eye’s Rich List, the one in the
Sunday Times is also headed by the Hindujas, with £28.47 billion, and has steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal sixth with £17bn.
Sadly, Srichand Hinduja is not very well, so the burden of leading the group has fallen on Gopi. The third brother, Prakash, was last week in Cannes, where the Hindujas have a villa, and photographed dancing with Indian stars.
The other day I drove past the Old War Office building in Whitehall, which the Hindujas have converted into a Raffles Hotel and luxury apartments.
Sunak has to keep his nerve and get the economy back on track. Assuming the £730m is roughly right, most of the money belongs to his wife through the Infosys shares she holds in India. As a “non-domicile” resident of the UK, she is liable to pay tax on her dividends if they are brought into Britain.
Sunak was defended by his cabinet colleague and deputy prime minister Dominic Raab, the justice secretary, who said: “He's a fantastic example of someone who's been successful in business, who's coming to make a big impact in public service. I think we want more of those people.
“I think it's fantastic that you've got someone of British-Indian origin, showing all people in our country that you can get to the top of politics.
“And frankly, I think if I understood correctly, the
was a reflection of not just him but his wife. His wife is an incredibly successful entrepreneur in her own right. Again someone that's here, British-Indian, and actually I think we want to see more women succeeding in both business and politics.”
But one tabloid paper said that “social media users have raised eyebrows at the announcement, with some questioning how a multimillionaire chancellor will be able to relate to the millions of Britons facing a cost of living squeeze”.
A Twitter user described Sunak's inclusion as a “bitter pill to take”. She wrote: “Rishi Sunak and his wife making the Rich List is a bitter pill to take from a man in charge of the country's purse strings – when so many have been forced into poverty with the current cost of living crisis.”
Another said: “Rishi Sunak and his wife are in the Times Rich List. They're in the top 250 richest in the country! He's definitely going to help ordinary people isn't he.”
There are no easy choices for the chancellor. Should he stop funding the Ukraine war effort? Or should money be diverted from the NHS's treatment of cancer patients to help families with their energy and food bills?
On LBC last week, the CBI president Lord Karan Bilimoria added to the pressure on Sunak to act now – and not in October – to reduce the cost of living.
But none of this has anything to do with his wife's personal wealth.
In modern Britain, Sunak's colour shouldn't matter. For an Indian, he's pretty average, neither fair or dark. But it's worth noting that cartoonists on some papers are showing Sunak's complexion as being much darker than it is, possibly to send a not so subtle message to Tory voters in a future leadership contest that “he's not really one of us”.
Sunak's role is critical. How the economy performs will determine the result of the next general election.