Yahoo Finance How Much Is New British PM Rishi Sunak Worth?
Theatrics cranked up as Rishi Sunak was named Liz Truss’ successor after the shortest-serving UK Prime Minister in history resigned on Oct. 20 amid an ill-conceived economic plan and weak Conservative Party support.
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Sunak is the first British Asian to serve as prime minister, and the United Kingdom’s third head of state in under two months, following Truss and the scandal-beleaguered Boris Johnson, who exited the political arena in July pending a party leadership election.
According to NBC, Sunak — former banker and minister of finance — said he will lead with “integrity, professionalism and accountability,” during his first speech as PM on Oct. 25. He will attempt to right a British government plagued by past wrongdoing and economic instability.
Sunak, or “Rishi Rich” as the tabloids have dubbed him, is not without his opponents. There are conservatives who consider him to be disloyal and blame him for accelerating the departure of Johnson. Labour party members and liberal democrats are calling for an immediate election in light of the rotating door leadership situation of the past seven weeks.
Still, others are suspicious of how Sunak, now the richest ever occupant of the UK prime minister’s residence according to Reuters, can connect with ordinary working class Britons living in the middle of an economic crisis.
Sunak’s immense wealth will be constant fodder for the British press and public, but just how rich is the new UK prime minister?
Net Worth: $837 Million
Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty, were ranked 222nd on the Sunday Times’ 2022 “Rich List” in May, according to Reuters, with an estimated net worth of £730m ($837 million USD). Celebrity Net Worth has the Sunak family’s net worth listed at $800 million.
The New York Times stated that Sunak made a fortune in finance — including a stint at investment giant Goldman Sachs — but the bulk of the couple’s wealth comes from Sunak’s wife, Akshata, who is the daughter of the “father of India’s booming IT sector,” Narayana Murthy.
Murty is one of the wealthiest women in the U.K., holding a 0.93% stake in Infosys Technologies, the company her father co-founded in 1981, per Time. Infosys is a company valued at $721 billion and her father’s personal wealth is estimated at $4.5 billion, according to Reuters. Murty is the owner of start-up incubator Catamaran Ventures UK and has shares in a “half dozen or so other companies,” per The Washington Post.
Per Yahoo News UK, Sunak and Murty have four homes including a £6.6m ($7.5 million) townhouse in Kensington, London, a £1.5m ($1.72 million) mansion in Sunak’s constituency of Richmond, Yorkshire and a £5.5m ($6.31 million) home in Santa Monica, CA.
Sunak will have an annual salary of £164,080 ($188,258), £84,144 ($96,543) for being a member of Parliament, plus £79,936 ($91,715) for being prime minister, per the BBC.
Per Reuters, Sunak, speaking at a leadership election event in Darlington in August, downplayed the fact that he was richer than the late monarch Queen Elizabeth. “I think in our country, we judge people not by their bank account, we judge them by their character and their actions, said the leader. “And yes, I’m really fortunate to be in the situation I’m in now, but I wasn’t born like this.”
Early Life and Career
Rishi Sunak was born on May 12, 1980 in Southampton, England to Yashvir, a National Health Service general practitioner, and Usha, a pharmacist. According to Reuters, Sunak studied at the prestigious private Winchester College before studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford and earning an MBA at Stanford University.
Upon graduation, Sunak worked at a hedge fund firm and at Goldman Sachs before entering politics. Known as a rising star in British political circles, Sunak has been a member of Parliament for Richmond in Yorkshire since 2015, served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2019 to 2020 and was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2020 to 2022.
Personal Life
Per the NYT, Sunak met his future partner, Akshata Murty, at Stanford University studying on a Fulbright Scholarship after graduating from Oxford University. They married in her hometown of Bengaluru in 2009, and have two children, Anoushka and Krishna, according to Yahoo News UK.
Earlier in 2022, Murty made headline when, as an Indian citizen, she claimed non-domiciled status in the UK (which entitles her to pay no tax on income outside of Britain). According to the New York Times, after being heavily criticized in the press, she volunteered to pay the British tax on her global income.
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And Sunak himself garnered negative press when it was discovered that he had obtained a United States green card, allowing him to permanently reside in the country, per the NYT. He has since given up his U.S. lawful permanent residents status.
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