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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Politics
Dave Burke

Mega-rich Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty lose £500,000 a day as wealth drops to £529m

Rishi Sunak and his wife lost more than £500,000 a DAY as their wealth fell by £200 million in a year.

The PM and Akshata Murty - who are currently on a diplomatic blitz in Japan for the G7 summit - were hit by a fall in the value of her stake in her dad's company.

But the mega-rich power couple are unlikely to have to make cutbacks anytime soon, as they're still worth an estimated £529 million.

That's according to the Sunday Times Rich List, which last year said they had a fortune of around £730 million.

The list was released on a day an alarming new report warns ordinary Brits face soaring food bills as the cost of living crisis moves into a "new phase".

Ms Murty owns a small stake in Infosys, a £52 billion Indian IT giant co-founded by her billionaire father.

The PM has faced claims his wealth means he's 'out of touch' (Getty Images)

Her stake is just under 1% of the business, but the company shares have lost around a fifth of their value in the last year, The Times reports.

It comes as investors are worried about the future of the Indian technology sector.

The power couple first entered the Sunday Times Rich List last year when Mr Sunak was still chancellor in Boris Johnson's government.

Weeks earlier the pair had become embroiled in a row after it emerged Mrs Murty was a a non-domiciled (non-dom) UK resident - and chose to pay taxes on foreign income in India, instead of in the UK.

Following a furious backlash, she announced she would pay UK tax on her overseas income after a furious backlash.

She was not thought to have paid UK tax on £11.6m in dividend income from the firm last year, The Mirror reported a year ago.

It sparked claims of hypocrisy at a time when the then-Chancellor was putting up taxes.

Mr Sunak is being investigated by Parliament's standards watchdog after failing to tell MPs his wife earned shares in a childcare firm (PRU/AFP via Getty Images)

Mr Sunak has frequently had to fight off claims that his vast wealth means he's out of touch with those he represents.

During a hustings event last year in his failed leadership bid - when Tory members selected Liz Truss - he said: “My parents worked really hard to provide me with all these opportunities. I’m not going to apologise for what they did for me.

“And in fact that’s why I want to do this job, because I want to provide those opportunities for everyone else.”

He added: “I think in our country we judge people not by their bank account, we judge them by their character and their actions.”

But his wife's financial affairs are causing him a headache.

Last month it emerged that Mr Sunak is being investigated by Parliament's standards watchdog after he failed to tell MPs his wife owned shares in a childcare firm boosted by the Budget.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Daniel Greenberg, is probing whether the PM broke the MPs' code of conduct over the row.

Mr Greenberg's investigation, which was launched on Thursday last week and expanded today, centres around shares Akshata Murty holds in agency Koru Kids.

The company said on its website that the new incentives open to childminders - announced by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt last month - are "great”.

The Mirror previously reported that Mr Sunak failed to mention Ms Murthy's links to the company when he was questioned by MPs over why the private firms were set to benefit the most.

Downing Street has claimed rules were followed "to the letter", but critics said there are "serious questions" over benefits his family could get from Government actions.

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