The UK’s prime ministerial race frontrunner, Rishi Sunak, spoke of his pride in what his Indian parents-in-law – Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy and Sudha Murty – had achieved, as he fought back over media commentary around wife Akshata’s family wealth.
In a heated televised debate, the 42-year-old UK-born former Chancellor was asked about his wife’s tax affairs which had been in the headlines earlier this year, when she voluntarily relinquished her legal non-domicile status to pay taxes on her Indian income from Infosys shares also in the UK.
Sunak was also confronted about his own US Green Card status, which he reportedly gave up after a few months in the Chancellor’s job at No. 11 Downing Street.
“So, I’ve always been a completely normal UK taxpayer; my wife is from another country so she’s treated differently, but she explained that in the spring and she resolved that issue,” said Sunak, during the ITV channel debate on Sunday night.
“There is a commentary about my wife’s family’s wealth. So, let me just address that head-on because I think it’s worth doing. After all, I’m incredibly proud of what my parents-in-law built.
”My father-in-law came from absolutely nothing, just had a dream and a couple of hundred pounds that my mother-in-law’s savings provided him, and with that, he went on to build one of the world’s largest, most respected, most successful companies that by the way employs thousands of people here in the United Kingdom,” he said.
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