UK PM Sunak rapped for breaking MPs’ code of conduct over wife’s stake in company
- Rishi Sunak should have declared wife Akshata Murty’s stake in a firm set to benefit from government cash, a parliamentary watchdog said
- The House of Commons Standards Commissioner said ‘it was a relevant interest’ although the omission could have arisen out of confusion
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak should have declared his wife’s stake in a company that was set to benefit from government cash, a parliamentary watchdog declared on Thursday.
Sunak vowed “integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level” when he came to power, after the short-lived tenure of Liz Truss and the scandal-hit premiership of Boris Johnson.
But in a year in office, he has received a police fine for not wearing a seat belt, on top of another for breaking Covid lockdown rules when he was finance minister under Johnson.
House of Commons Standards Commissioner Daniel Greenberg began a probe in April after receiving a complaint about Sunak’s comments to a committee of senior MPs the previous month.
Sunak failed to mention to them and in a follow-up letter that his wife, Akshata Murty, held shares in a child-minding firm that would receive additional state funding.
He told Greenberg he had been advised that Murty’s shareholding “did not meet the test of relevance to require publication on the List of Minister’s Interests”.
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