UK: Sunak under investigation over his declaration of interest

It strives for honesty and transparency. However, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is under pressure from a parliamentary inquiry into possible flaws in his declaration of interest. This was announced on Monday by the commission for the control of deputies.

The investigation was formally launched on April 13 and the commission wants to check whether the head of government, who is often attacked because of his condition, has stated possible interests “openly and frankly”, as stipulated in the code of conduct for parliamentarians.

According to British media, the commission is particularly interested in shares in a child care company owned by Rishi Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murthy, the wealthy heiress of an Indian entrepreneur. However, this company is likely to benefit from the massive new childcare assistance announced by the government in its latest budget in mid-March.

Frequent lawsuits, divorced from the problems of the British

“We’ll be happy to help (Commission) to clarify that this was transparently stated in the Prime Minister’s Statement of Ministerial Interests and not in his Statement of Interests as a Parliamentarian, Downing Street, the seat of the British Government, responded.

Already last year, Rishi Sunak found himself at the center of controversy when he was finance minister. The press reported that his wife, an Indian citizen, enjoys preferential tax status. He was acquitted for any violation of the ministerial code, but shortly thereafter his wife announced that she was waiving that status, which allowed him not to pay tax to the British tax authorities on his overseas income.

Rishi Sunak is one of the richest MPs due to his financial experience. His fortune was often criticized by the Labor opposition, who accused him of being out of touch with the concerns of the British in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis. His tax notices, which he released last month in a bid for transparency, showed he had paid more than a million pounds (1.13 million euros) in taxes over the past three years.