Now Rishi Sunak has officially been named the UK's 57th prime minister, the third occupant of 10 Downing Street in less than three months, our attention is turned to his family, namely his wife, Akshata Murty. An heiress to a fortune worth billions, Murty has already had her fair share of media attention but who exactly is Akshata Murty? Here’s everything you need to know.
Who is Akshata Murty and how did she meet Rishi Sunak?
The daughter of Indian billionaire Narayana Murthy, one of the country's best known businessmen who has been dubbed the Bill Gates of India, Akshata’s family had surprisingly humble beginnings.
Published letters revealed that her father heard about the news of her birth in 1980 from a colleague because the family could not afford a telephone. The letter read: "Your mother and I were young then and struggling to find our feet in our careers." he wrote.
When she was just a few months old, Akshata was sent to live with her paternal grandparents as her mother, Sudha Murty, and her father advanced their careers in Mumbai. A year later, her father co-founded Infosys, an IT services company which would go on to make him one of India's richest men.
Let's take a look at his voting record.
You might notice that the family use two different spellings for their surname – Murty and Murthy – her father favours the latter, while her mother uses the spelling Murty, which has been adopted by Akshata too.
Akshata went on to study economics and French at the private liberal Claremont McKenna College in California. She then gained a diploma at a fashion college before working at Deloitte and Unilever and studying for an MBA at Stanford University. It was at Stanford that she met Rishi Sunak, who was then a Fulbright Scholar with a first class degree from Oxford University.
The couple married four years later in 2009 in a two-day ceremony in Bengaluru. Rishi said during his campaign last year against Liz Truss that he was grateful that Akshata gave the “short kid with backpack” a chance.
The couple have two daughters, Krishna and Anoushka Sunak.
Akshata began her career in finance in California before starting her own fashion label, Akshata Designs, which launched its first collection in 2011. According to news sources the business collapsed within three years.
What is Akshata Murty's net worth and what does she do?
According to The Times, Akshata and Rishi Sunak have a net worth of £730m, making Rishi the wealthiest politician ever to appear in the Sunday Times Rich List.
One of Akshata’s main business interests is the London-based offshoot of Catamaran Ventures, which was founded by her and Rishi in 2013 and invests in start-ups.
On Companies House, Akshata is also listed as a director of Digme Fitness, a gym chain but the company was put into administration in February this year. She’s also a director of New & Lingwood, a luxury menswear label.
However, it’s her 0.9% stake in Infosys, her father’s business, where the majority of her wealth comes from, which is valued at roughly £690m – a figure which is said to make her richer than King Charles III.
Her shares in the company became a subject of controversy following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, when the firm came under pressure to end its operations in Moscow. In April, the BBC was told Infosys was closing its office in Russia.
The couple’s main London home is a five-bedroom Kensington mews house worth an estimated £7 million. There’s also a flat on nearby Old Brompton Road, a Georgian grade II listed manor house, thought to be worth about £2 million, and a Californian penthouse in Santa Monica, said to be worth another £5.5 million.
Does she have non-dom status?
There was a media backlash earlier this year when it emerged that Akshata Murty had something called non-domiciled status, meaning she didn’t need to pay tax on any of her earnings from outside the UK on income from foreign investments, rental payments on overseas properties or bank interest. It has been estimated that Akshata may have been able to save £20million through having non-dom status.
The family put out a statement: “Akshata Murty is a citizen of India, the country of her birth and parent’s home. India does not allow its citizens to hold the citizenship of another country simultaneously. So, according to British law, Ms Murty is treated as non-domiciled for UK tax purposes. She has always and will continue to pay UK taxes on all her UK income.”
However, in response to a public outcry, she relinquished her non-dom status and now pays British taxes on all her worldwide income.
In a statement she said: “It has become clear that many do not feel it is compatible with my husband’s role as chancellor. I understand and appreciate the British sense of fairness and I do not wish my tax status to be a distraction for my husband or to affect my family.”
She added: “Rishi has always respected the fact that I am Indian and as proud of my country as he is of his. He has never asked me to abandon my Indian citizenship, ties to India or my business affairs, despite the ways in which such a move would have simplified things for him politically [...]
“My decision to pay UK tax on all my worldwide income will not change the fact that India remains the country of my birth, citizenship, parents’ home and place of domicile. But I love the UK too. In my time here I have invested in British businesses and supported British causes.”
