Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Rishi Sunak, Akshata Murty make UK rich list debut with £730m wealth together

Rishi Sunak, Akshata Murty make UK rich list debut with £730m wealth together

BRITAIN'S chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty are among the richest people in the UK with their combined fortune estimated at £730 million.

The couple made their debut in the annual Sunday Times Rich List on Friday (20), ranked 222. Indian-origin Hinduja brothers are at the top of the list with an estimated £28.472 billion.

Sunak, who is married to India-born Murty, the daughter of Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy, is described in the analysis as the first frontline politician to appear in its annual rankings of the UK's wealthiest in its 34-year history.

The 42-year-old Indian-origin finance minister is a former hedge fund manager who left his financial career to be elected a Conservative Party member of Parliament in 2015.

“Not so long ago Sunak, 42, was touted as a future prime minister, a smooth heir to the bumbling Boris Johnson. However, the chancellor's ambitions have been derailed by last month's revelation that his wife, Akshata Murty, was a ‘non-dom’ a status that allows those who have their permanent home (domicile) outside the UK to pay tax only on earnings in this country, as well as an annual charge of £30,000,” reads The Sunday Times Rich List report.

For Murty, it notes that the entrepreneur owns 0.93 per cent of Infosys in her own name, which would be a stake worth about £690 million.

“It should have delivered about £54 million in dividends over the past seven and a half years, including £11 million in 2021. Without the non-dom status, Murty would have been liable for £20.6 million of UK tax on these payments. She has now agreed to pay tax on her 2021 dividends,” the report adds

Last month, Murty had announced that she will pay UK taxes on all her income, including from India, to avoid the row over her non-dom status being a “distraction” for her husband.

Sunak had vehemently defended his wife and has since been given a clean chit by an independent ministerial ethics advisor to the UK government over the issue.

Sri and Gopichand Hinduja and family returned to the top of the 'Sunday Times Rich List' rankings after slipping to third place last year, with the biggest fortune recorded in the list's history.

“All may not be harmonious within the Hinduja dynasty, but their business empire has enjoyed a bumper year,” notes the newspaper, with reference to a reported family feud.

“Much of their wealth is to be found in companies listed on the Indian stock market. The family's stake in the Mumbai-based IndusInd Bank is now worth £4.545 billion. Their holding in the vehicle manufacturer Ashok Leyland, which has headquarters in Chennai, has a value of £2.663 billion after a strong year and the Hindujas' stake in the IT giant Hinduja Global Solutions is worth £1.283 billion. Shares in other listed companies add another £1.174 billion," it adds.

In third place is another set of India-born brothers, David and Simon Reuben, and family with a fortune estimated at around GBP 22.265 billion.

They follow British inventor-entrepreneur Sir James Dyson and family, ranked second with an estimated GBP 23 billion.

Further down in sixth place is NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi N Mittal with £17bn, who added around £ 2.3bn to his fortunes since last year through ArcelorMittal steelworks.

Other Indian-origin billionaires on the 2022 list include metals industrialist Anil Agarwal at number 16 with an estimated £9.2 billion, retail majors Mohsin and Zuber Issa at number 39 with an estimated £4.73 billion, Prakash Lohia at number 41 with an estimated £4.37 billion and Simon, Bobby and Robin Arora at number 69 with £2.543 billion.

Also ranked within the top 100 are NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul and family and Varsha and Navin Engineer at a joint number 72 (£2.5 billion), followed by Biocon founders Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and John Shaw at number 75 (£2.496 billion) and hoteliers Jasminder Singh and family at number 99 (£1.824 billion).

Overall, the UK now has a record of 177 billionaires, up six from 2021 with a combined wealth between them of £653 billion, up more than £55 billion (9.4 per cent) on the total wealth of the billionaires in last year's Sunday Times Rich List.

The annual tally measures identifiable wealth, such as land, property, racehorses, art or significant shares in publicly quoted companies.

Bank accounts, to which the newspaper says it has no access, and small shareholdings in a private equity portfolio are excluded.

More For You

ve-day-getty

VE Day 80 street parties, picnics and community get togethers are being encouraged to take place across the country as part of the Great British Food Festival. (Photo: Getty Images)

Public invited to attend VE Day 80 procession and flypast

THE 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day will be marked with a military procession in London on May 5.

The event will include over 1,300 members of the Armed Forces, youth groups, and uniformed services marching from Parliament Square to Buckingham Palace.

Keep ReadingShow less
Knife crimes

Knife-enabled crimes include cases where a blade or sharp instrument was used to injure or threaten, including where the weapon was not actually seen.

Getty Images/iStockphoto

Knife crime in London accounts for a third of national total: ONS

KNIFE-RELATED crime in London made up almost a third of all such offences recorded in England and Wales in 2024, with the Metropolitan Police logging 16,789 incidents, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Thursday.

This amounts to one offence every 30 minutes in the capital and represents 31 per cent of the 54,587 knife-enabled crimes reported across England and Wales last year. The total number marks a two per cent rise from 53,413 offences in 2023.

Keep ReadingShow less
Starmer and Modi

Starmer and Modi shake hands during a bilateral meeting in the sidelines of the G20 summit at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Brazil, on November 18, 2024.

Getty Images

Starmer calls Modi over Kashmir attack; expresses condolences

PRIME MINISER Keir Starmer spoke to Indian prime minister Narendra Modi on Friday morning following the deadly attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam region that killed 26 people on Tuesday.

According to a readout from 10 Downing Street, Starmer said he was horrified by the devastating terrorist attack and expressed deep condolences on behalf of the British people to those affected, their loved ones, and the people of India. The two leaders agreed to stay in touch.

Keep ReadingShow less
 Post Office Horizon

A Post Office van parked outside the venue for the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry at Aldwych House on January 11, 2024 in London, England. (Photo: Getty Images)

Getty Images

Post Office spent £600m to keep Horizon despite plans to replace it: Report

THE POST OFFICE has spent more than £600 million of public funds to continue using the Horizon IT system, according to a news report.

Despite deciding over a decade ago to move away from the software, the original 1999 contract with Fujitsu prevented the Post Office from doing so, as it did not own the core software code, a BBC investigation shows.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pahalgam attack: Prayer meet held at Indian mission in London

The prayer meet was led by Indian High Commissioner to the UK Vikram Doraiswami

Pahalgam attack: Prayer meet held at Indian mission in London

Mahesh Liloriya

A PRAYER meet was held at the Gandhi Hall in the High Commission of India in London on Thursday (24) to pay respects to the victims of the Pahalgam terrorist attack.

Chants of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ rang out at the event which was led by Indian High Commissioner to the UK Vikram Doraiswami.

Keep ReadingShow less