Britain will either have the first Hindu prime minister in its history or a woman as head of government for the third time: Ex-Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss are going head-to-head in a runoff election to succeed Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Around 200,000 Tory members are to vote by post so that the new party leader can be named on September 5, who will then also become head of government.
A good chance is given to Sunak. In all rounds of voting, the deputy was ahead; however, he seems less popular with the party's grassroots: a YouGov poll of 725 Conservative Party members predicted the former Treasury Secretary would lose to Truss in the runoff.
British media are also reporting that the incumbent government is currently pulling out all the stops to prevent Sunak from being elected. The ex-Treasury Secretary had contributed significantly to Johnson's case with his resignation in early July.
Among other things, the 42-year-old advocates an economical budgetary policy and "green taxes" to combat climate change. Unlike many of his opponents, he had been critical of possible tax cuts. "Economic growth has priority." The best way to do this is with tax cuts and a reduction in bureaucracy. However, in view of the current crises, the former finance minister does not want to lower the rate immediately, but only in the medium term - which also brings him a lot of criticism in his party.
In this context, Sunak's background is interesting: he is one of the richest Britons in the kingdom. Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty are ranked 222nd out of 250 on The Times' 2022 Rich List - with a combined fortune of around £730m. That's the equivalent of more than 860 million euros.
According to the British newspaper "The Guardian", Sunak is the first top politician in the country to be counted among the richest people in Great Britain. The couple owns properties worth around £15million.
But where did Sunak, a former hedge fund manager, and his wife get the money?
Born in Southampton in 1980, Sunak studied politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford, where he graduated with top marks. He later earned a Masters of Business Administration from Stanford University in California. There he met his current wife, with whom he now has two children.
Sunak later worked for the investment bank Goldman Sachs and was a partner in two hedge funds. In 2015 he became a member of the British Parliament. As a member of parliament and finance minister, he earned around £150,000, according to the British BBC.
But Rishi Sunak was already a multi-millionaire in his mid-twenties, the "Times" reported in 2020. But Sunak never spoke publicly about his fortune. According to The Sun newspaper, his net worth is estimated at around £200m.
However, a large part of the fortune comes from Sunak's wife Akshata Murty, who is said to be "richer than the Queen". Her personal fortune is estimated at around £430 million, according to the Metro newspaper. The Queen's net worth is £350 million.
The heiress to a multi-billion dollar fortune, who was born the same year as her husband, was born into an Indian family of entrepreneurs, as the BBC writes.
Murty was educated in the US, studying economics and French at a private college in California. She then earned a degree from a fashion college and worked at Deloitte and Unilever before earning her Masters of Business Administration from Stanford.
Her family earned their money in the IT industry, among other things. Her father co-founded Infosys, one of the largest companies in India, which operates in around 50 countries, according to the BBC. In 2021, the company made a turnover of 13.5 billion US dollars. In 2011, Narayana Murthy, dubbed the "Steve Jobs of India," resigned as chairman but still retains 0.39 percent of the shares.
He was also on the board of companies such as banks HSBC and ICIC, according to the BBC. He is also chairman of Catamaran Ventures, an investment firm that has over $1 billion in assets under management. According to estimates by "Forbes" magazine, his net worth is 4.4 billion British pounds - the equivalent of more than 5.1 billion euros.
Akshata Murty also owns shares in Infosys, according to the BBC – 0.9 percent according to the IT company's annual report. Their stake varies in value but is estimated at around £700m. She also receives annual dividend payments on the shares, which totaled £11.6m last year, according to the BBC.
Murty is also a director of Catamaran Ventures UK, which invests in start-ups, according to her LinkedIn profile. "We look specifically at British brands that need capital, management know-how and network partners to grow strategically. We are concentrating on international expansion as one of the most important growth paths," says the company.
She and Sunak founded the company in 2013, according to the BBC. Sunak stepped down as director in 2015 when he became an MP. A year later, his wife became the majority shareholder. In 2020, Catamaran Ventures UK reported the value of its investments as £3.5million.
Murty is also a director at other companies including Digme Fitness, Trustee and New, according to LinkedIn
Recently, however, there has been criticism of Murty, Sunak and their assets. In April, it was revealed, according to TV channel ITV, that Murty had a so-called 'non-dom status', which normally applies to someone who was born abroad and spends a large part of their time in the UK, but a different country nonetheless considered his permanent residence.
It is estimated that Murty could have saved £20m in tax on dividends from her shares in Infosys with "non-dom status", according to ITV. The opposition leader in the UK House of Commons then accused Sunak of "breathtaking hypocrisy" for raising taxes on working people when he was finance minister, ITV said.
Murty later agreed to pay UK tax on her overseas income and Sunak was acquitted of breaching the Ministerial Code. According to ITV, Sunak had disclosed his wife's tax status in 2018 when he first became Minister. There was no evidence that either of them did anything wrong.
But Sunak himself was also criticized for possible tax benefits. The Independent newspaper reported in April this year that he was a beneficiary of tax haven trusts when he was finance minister. Trusts in the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands, which were set up to help manage the tax and business affairs of his wife's family interests, according to The Independent, name Sunak as a 2020 beneficiary.
Trusts are mergers of several companies "which give up their legal and economic independence in contrast to a group. The merger of companies to form a trust takes place either through the takeover of the assets of the transferring company by another company or through the merger of the companies and the formation of a new company". , according to the Federal Agency for Civic Education.
Politicians with equity portfolios and investments routinely set up "blind trusts" when they land government jobs, according to the BBC. This allows them to continue earning income from their investments without knowing where the money is invested. The aim is to eliminate potential conflicts of interest when making economic policy decisions that could bring them more money. A practice that is controversial.
Sunak therefore founded his trust in 2019. The opposition Labor demanded transparency from the then finance minister. The Ministry of Finance said at the time that Sunak "had faithfully followed the ministerial code". According to the BBC, former Prime Minister Theresa May also had such a trust.
