Britain’s Finance Minister Rishi Sunak has denounced a “smear campaign” by the Labor opposition, as his wealthy wife comes under fire for her favorable tax status amid a cost-of-living crisis.
“Dirting my wife to get at me is awful,” he said in an interview with the tabloid “The Sun” on Friday, adding that his wife, who is of Indian nationality, had “paid taxes in the UK on every penny she earned” in this country.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer told the British newspaper that he saw it as a “smear campaign” coming from the ranks of the opposition.
An accusation immediately denied by a source in the Labor Party, which points rather to the side of the services of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, recently mired in scandals and to whom the popularity, now declining, of Mr. Sunak could have made shadow.
Labor leader Keir Starmer slams Mr Sunak’s ‘breathtaking hypocrisy’ over his wife’s tax status, as the Chancellor recently hiked taxes to put the public accounts in order after spending related to the pandemic.
Akshata Murthy, the wealthy daughter of the billionaire co-founder of the Indian technology group Infosys, has non-domiciled status (to be distinguished from non-resident), which allows her not to pay taxes in the United Kingdom on her foreign income.
This means his permanent home is considered to be outside the UK, while Rishi Sunak and his wife occupy a company flat in Downing Street, London.
This status would have allowed him to avoid millions of pounds in taxes, according to the newspaper The Independent which revealed the information.
According to the Chancellor, “the (tax) rates do not make a difference” from one country to another and it is therefore not a question of paying less tax.
“My wife was born in India, she was brought up there” and “it would not be reasonable or fair to ask her to cut ties with her country simply because she is married to me”, he argued. .
If this status is legal, these revelations go badly in a country which sees the cost of living racing, propelled by energy bills.
Mr. Sunak, once the darling of conservative sympathizers, was already under the wrath of public opinion after his last budget presentation at the end of March, accused of doing too little to help the most modest. His popularity rating takes a new hit.