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Rishi Sunak investigation: Has he breached the rules over undeclared interest? [1]
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Date: 2023-04
That Rishi Sunak is being investigated over his wife’s share dealings is a major blow for a prime minister who vowed to prioritise ethics – but it may not surprising given his entire government appears to be in breach of the ministerial code.
The investigation, confirmed today by the parliamentary commissioner for standards, is believed to relate to KoruKids, a firm in which Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty, is a major shareholder and which benefitted from payments introduced in last month’s budget.
The probe is being triggered through Parliament’s “new code”, which Sunak brought in four months ago in a bid to draw a line under the sleaze of the Boris Johnson years.
In his first speech as prime minister in October, Sunak promised to bring back “integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level”. And in his leadership election against Liz Truss, he vowed that his government would prioritise “competency” and “decency”.
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Yet appearing before the Liaison Committee of MPs last month, Sunak was specifically asked why the budget's incentive payments favoured private firms – but he did not mention that his wife was a major shareholder in one of the firms benefiting.
Under Parliament’s rules, MPs are normally expected to declare any relevant interests they have when answering questions.
It is not the first time Murty’s extensive shareholdings have raised questions for the prime minister. In February, it emerged that she had shares in a company that benefited from £300,000 in emergency Covid loans when Sunak was chancellor.
Sunak also previously received scrutiny over his wife’s shares in her billionaire father’s software firm – fielding questions on everything from his wife’s net worth – estimated to be hundreds of millions of pounds – to whether she benefitted from trading in Russia, something they deny.
Has Sunak breached the rules?
The prime minister’s position is that he has followed the rules at all times and declared his wife’s shareholding by disclosing it to the government’s ethics adviser.
However, Sunak’s declaration has never been made public. The last list of ministers’ interests, published in May 2022, makes no mention of his wife’s shareholding in KoruKids. Nor is there any mention in the MPs’ register of interests.
This is because of the way transparency rules work for ministers.
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[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/freedom-of-information/rishi-sunak-investigate-wife-interest-undeclared-ministerial-code-breach-akshata-murty/
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