British Finance Minister denounces “smear campaign” for criticizing his wife

British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak on Friday denounced a “smear campaign” by the Labor opposition after his billionaire wife was criticized for avoiding certain taxes in the United Kingdom at the height of the cost of living crisis.

“Attacking my wife to get to me is horrible,” he said in an interview published on Friday by The Sun newspaper, stressing that his wife, an Indian national, has “paid taxes to the United Kingdom for every penny she has earned” in this country.

Sunak denounced that he considers it a “smear campaign” from the ranks of the opposition Labor Party.

But a source from that formation immediately denied the accusation and rather pointed to the entourage of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, recently mired in scandals and whose popularity plummeted while that of the Finance Minister rose, long considered the favorite to replace him.

His wife, Akshata Murty, daughter of the billionaire co-founder of the Indian tech group Infosys, has “non-domiciled” status (as opposed to “non-resident”), which allows her to avoid UK tax on foreign income.

This means that her permanent address is considered to be outside the country, even though she and Sunak occupy an official residence in Downing Street.

According to The Independent newspaper, which released the information, this status has allowed him to save millions of pounds in taxes, including dividends from his Infosys stake.

“My wife was born in India, she grew up there” and “it would not be reasonable or fair to ask her to cut ties with her country just because she is married to me,” Sunak argued.

This status is legal, but the news has been unwelcome by Britons, who are seeing their purchasing power dwindle amid historically high inflation, skyrocketing energy bills and, from Wednesday, an increase in social security contributions.

Sunak was harshly criticized in March for his new budget measures, denounced as elitist and far from the real situation of the majority of Britons. And his popularity has dropped in the polls.

ode-acc/bl

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