The release of details of Rishi Sunak’s tax returns on Wednesday reveals several things. The first is that the prime minister and those around him think his tax returns are a public relations embarrassment. Many months after promising to do so, Mr Sunak finally slipped the details into the public realm at the very time when the political world was almost wholly focused on Boris Johnson’s confrontation with the Commons privileges committee. It was a shabby trick.
When he became prime minister, Mr Sunak promised that his government would have “integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level”. But this was not the act of a leader who is comfortable accounting for his wealth. The release also stopped well short of complete transparency. This very deliberately furtive act was fully in the tradition of the Labour spin doctor’s notorious advice on September 11 that the attacks on the twin towers had provided “a good day to bury bad news”.
