Last Updated: April 19, 2023, 18:53 IST
Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty outside 10 Downing Street. (AFP)
Rishi Sunak has faced questions over Akshata Murty’s shares in Koru Kids, which could benefit from a policy in last month’s Budget, four years after she invested in the company
After a controversy over Akshata Murty’s shares in a childcare firm, UK PM Rishi Sunak has declared his wife’s shareholding in Koru Kids that could benefit from a new government policy, a report has said.
Sunak has declared that among “a number of direct shareholdings” owned by his wife, Akshata Murty, is a “minority shareholding” in Koru Kids, one of the companies involved in a pilot scheme to incentivise people to become childminders, The Guardian reported.
“The prime minister’s wife is a venture capital investor. She owns a venture capital investment company, Catamaran Ventures UK Limited, and a number of direct shareholdings,” Sunak’s full entry for family interests said.
The UK Prime Minister has faced questions over Akshata Murty’s shares in Koru Kids, which could benefit from a policy in last month’s Budget, four years after she invested in the company.
Sunak faces a parliamentary probe after not mentioning them during a committee appearance last month. Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Daniel Greenberg on Thursday launched the probe into shares Akshata Murty holds in the childcare agency.
The Labour Party has also called him to ‘come clean’ and publish his interests.
Meanwhile, the British Prime Minister’s office resisted the call to publish Sunak’s interests on Tuesday and said it had no plans to publish them separately to the wider list of interests for all ministers, a report in BBC said.
The records show Akshata Murty first took a stake in Koru Kids in March 2019. However, the six registers published since then made no mention of it.
Akshata Murty is the daughter of NR Narayana Murthy, the co-founder of Indian IT giant Infosys and her wealth is estimated at around $700 million.
While Sunak is a British national, his wife Akshata is an Indian citizen. Her non-domiciled status, which allows her to earn money abroad without paying taxes in Britain for a period of up to 15 years, has been a divisive issue in the UK.
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