Sunak faces fresh Infosys scrutiny as minister accused of giving it ‘VIP access’
Rishi Sunak is facing fresh scrutiny over his government’s relationship with the IT firm Infosys, owned by his wife’s family, after it emerged that a minister told company executives he would “do what he could” to help grow its UK business.
Dominic Johnson, a trade minister, discussed the UK operations of Infosys in a meeting at the company’s offices in Bengaluru in India, details of which were obtained by the Sunday Mirror through freedom of information requests.
Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty, has a 0.91% stake – previously valued at more than £500m – in her father’s Indian IT business and received dividends of £13m in the last financial year, helping to make Sunak reputedly the UK’s wealthiest ever prime minister.
A readout of the meeting on 27 April last year said Lord Johnson “made clear that he was keen to see a bigger Infosys presence in the UK and would be happy to do what he could to facilitate that”.
A “steering brief” for the meeting said it “would be good to reassure them on the prospects for the UK economy and remind them of the support that we can provide through DBT [Department for Business and Trade]”.
This was reinforced in a list of speaking points, one of which said: “We value the relationship with Infosys and will continue to engage at a ministerial level when requested of us.”
Labour suggested Infosys had effectively been granted “VIP access”, reminiscent of the VIP lane through which firms with contacts among Conservative ministers and government figures won lucrative deals to supply personal protective equipment (PPE) during the coronavirus pandemic.
The shadow paymaster general, Jonathan Ashworth, told the Sunday Mirror: “After the Tories handed billions in taxpayers’ cash to cronies for duff PPE, the public will wonder why an outfit so personally close to Rishi Sunak appears to have been granted this VIP access. There are serious questions to answer.”
The controversy is the latest in a series relating to his wife and Infosys to engulf Sunak. In 2022, when Sunak was chancellor, Murty agreed to pay UK tax on all her overseas income, but not on backdated income, after a row about her non-dom tax status. As a non-domiciled UK resident, she is not required by law to pay UK taxes on her overseas income.
The same year, Sunak faced accusations that Murty was collecting “blood money” in dividends because Infosys was still operating in Russia despite Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and Sunak calling for companies to pull out. The firm later said it was urgently closing its Moscow office.
Last month, Murty donated her shares in the childcare company Koru Kids to charity, following concerns about whether she stood to benefit from government policies.
She took the decision after parliament’s standards watchdog concluded last year that the prime minister inadvertently breached parliament’s code of conduct by failing to properly declare his wife’s shareholding, which stood to benefit from a government childcare policy announced in the spring budget.
Concerns have also been raised that Sunak’s family could stand to benefit financially from a post-Brexit free trade agreement (FTA) that he is negotiating with India, raising a conflict of interest.
Infosys is known to want to improve access for its many thousands of contract workers through changes to the UK visa regime.
The briefing paper for the April meeting said one of the objectives was to “reassure that the FTA will further create new opportunities and investorfriendly policies to support business growth”.
Johnson outlined to the Infosys executives, whose names were redacted, advantages that could accrue to it through the existing high-potential individual visa scheme.
A DBT spokesperson said: “The investment minister regularly meets businesses and international investors, including a range of Indian businesses, to champion the UK as an investment destination and secure commitments worth billions of pounds.
“That engagement drives investment across the UK, creating thousands of high-quality jobs and boosting the UK economy.”
Infosys was approached for comment.