Rishi’s richer by £122million
THE personal fortune of Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty soared by more than £122million in the past year to overtake the King.
The couple’s wealth jumped from £529million to £651million in the annual Sunday Times Rich List – which works out as a 23% rise for the Prime Minister and businesswoman Ms Murty, both 44.
The leap was linked to her stake in Infosys, an Indian tech giant cofounded by her father N R Narayana Murthy. Her shares’ value grew by £109million to almost £590million.
The list suggests that Ms Murty received about £13million in dividends last year, on top of more than £60million during previous years.
Analysts believes she is due to pick up £10.5million this year but the couple’s riches remain below 2022’s level of £730million.
Ms Murty became the director of venture capital fund Catamaran Ventures in 2013.
She also co-founded the London branch of Infosys with Mr Sunak – who was in the stands watching his team Southampton in the playoffs against West Brom last night – and he transferred his shares to her shortly before he was elected as an MP in 2015.
She has since owned a stake of just less than 1% in Infosys. Two years ago it emerged that she had
‘It suggests Britain’s billionaire boom has come to an end’
non-domiciled resident status which let her be exempt from paying tax on her income outside Britain, subject to an annual £30,000 fee.
She announced in April 2022 that she would give up her “non-dom” standing and pay UK taxes on her worldwide income voluntarily.
Labour’s Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves has ruled out wealth taxes if in government but vowed to shut loopholes in the plan to axe non-dom status for the super-rich.
The list of the richest people in Great Britain also showed that the King’s wealth increased to £610million from £600million.
Euan Blair – eldest son of former PM Sir Tony – featured for the first time, at 337th. The 40-year-old jointly founded £1.4billion apprenticeship tech firm Multiverse and his stake is worth at least £350million, while he has raked in millions more from the sales of shares.
The newspaper’s Rich List also revealed the number of British billionaires has plummeted for the second year running.
It peaked at 177 2022, before dropping to 171 and falling again this year, to 165. The trend is being driven by some of the super-rich seeing their private wealth contract amid high borrowing rates, while others have left the country. Robert Watts, compiler of the survey, said: “This year’s Rich List suggests Britain’s billionaire boom has come to an end.Many homegrown entrepreneurs have seen their fortunes fall and some of the global super-rich who came here are moving away. Thousands of British livelihoods rely on the super-rich to some extent.”
He added: “We’ll have to wait and see whether we have now reached peak billionaire, and what that means for our economy.”
The list details Britain’s 350 richest individuals and families – they boast a combined wealth of £795.36billion, according to the latest figures.
This year’s list was again topped by Gopi Hinduja, 84, and his family, who control the Indian conglomerate Hinduja Group. Mr Hinduja and his relatives saw their wealth rise to £37.2billion for the year, from £35billion. But a number of the country’s highest-profile billionaires saw their fortunes shrink over the year, amid challenging times for many businesses and investments.
The biggest faller on the list was Sir Jim Ratcliffe, 71, Manchester United investor and founder of chemicals giant Ineos.
His net worth plunged by more than £6billion to £23.52billion.
Sir James Dyson, 77, felt the second-largest fall, with the electricals entrepreneur experiencing a drop to £20.8billion from £23billion.
Sir Richard Branson, 73, saw his wealth drop to £2.4billion from £4.2billion after a challenging year for space flight firm Virgin Galactic.