Tory Party members want Truss out and Johnson back
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Next UK PM Rishi Sunak's wealth in spotlight
The couple's money comes primarily from Murty's stake in her father's company, Infosys.
Author of the article:Washington Post
Washington Post
Karla Adam
Publishing date:Oct 24, 2022 • 1 day ago • 5 minute read • 19 Comments
LONDON — Rishi Sunak is one of the wealthiest people in Britain and will be the most powerful when he becomes prime minister. It will be the first time in history that the residents of Downing Street are richer than those of Buckingham Palace.
Brits are used to being ruled by elites — Boris Johnson was about as elite as they come — but Sunak is not just rich, he is super rich, which has prompted some to ask whether his vast fortune makes him too rich to be prime minister.
His backers, however, say it is precisely this background and the years spent making money that qualify him to lead a deeply damaged nation during these economically tumultuous times.
Sunak, a former banker, and his wife, Indian tech heiress Akshata Murty, have an estimated fortune of about 730 million pounds (US$827 million), according to the Sunday Times Rich List. On the 2022 list, the monarch was estimated to have about 370 million pounds ($419 million) by comparison.
The couple’s money comes primarily from Murty’s stake in her father’s company, Infosys. She also owns start-up incubator Catamaran Ventures UK and has shares in a half dozen or so other companies. The couple have at least three homes in Britain, as well as a Santa Monica, California, property valued at around $6 million.
According to the Guardian, the Sunak family – they have two daughters, Krishna and Anoushka – spend the week in their five-bedroom house in west London and weekends in North Yorkshire at a Georgian manor house. The paper said it has been “transformed into something of a wellness retreat with a £400,000 indoor swimming pool, gym, yoga studio, hot tub and tennis court.”
Does any of that matter to voters?
“It’s not binary,” said Robert Ford, a professor of politics at the University of Manchester. “The British as a whole don’t think that being wealthy is a bad or disqualifying thing. There are lots of very wealthy individuals who are very popular with the public.
“People do care about wealthy people fixing the rules for themselves. It’s non-dom status for your wife while you are the chancellor, it’s green cards in the U.S. in case things go south, it’s family tax numbers being massaged down. People are like, ‘well, I don’t mind so long as you pay your taxes, but it really annoys me if you don’t,'” he said.
Earlier this year, Sunak’s wife was at the center of a tax scandal after it emerged that she had been filing in the United Kingdom as a “non-domiciled” resident, which allowed her to avoid paying British taxes on the substantial income she earned abroad. The family had been living at 10 Downing Street, in the apartment designated for Britain’s finance minister (the living quarters are smaller than 11 Downing Street, where prime minsters generally prefer to live). Moving vans arrived when the scandal was still simmering.
It also came out around the same time that Sunak had held a U.S. green card while he was chancellor of the Exchequer, or finance minister. He spokesman said he returned it last year.
Sunak’s critics have sought to play up his privileged upbringing. They point out that he attended the 600-year-old Winchester College, where annual fees for those who board, like he did, today exceed $52,000.
In the last leadership election this summer, they circulated a video clip from a 2007 BBC documentary in which he suggests he doesn’t have any “working-class friends.”
He was also attacked for giving a speech to grass-roots Conservative Party members this summer where he said that, as chancellor, he tried to reverse funding formulas “that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas” so as to help wealthier towns.
During these troubled times of high energy prices and runaway inflation, however, Sunak’s supporters counter that his background – not his wealth, but his own experience in finance and at the treasury – make him the right man for the job right now.
Before becoming a lawmaker – only seven years ago, a rapid ascent in British political terms – Sunak worked as an investment banker with Goldman Sachs and as a hedge fund manager. He most recently served in government as chancellor, where he became hugely popular as he dished money out during the pandemic.
He has consistently polled better than any of his contenders in this leadership race on economic competence. In the last race against Liz Truss, Sunak said that Truss’s plans were based on “fantasy” economics – a pronouncement that proved prescient when her “mini-budget” caused widespread turmoil in the markets.
Jeremy Hunt, the current British chancellor who will be hoping to keep his job, has come out in support of Sunak. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he said the British people were looking for someone who could handle the current crisis.
“Our public finances, market credibility and international reputation have taken a serious blow. To restore stability and confidence, we need a leader who can be trusted to make difficult choices,” he wrote. “We also need someone who can explain those choices to members of the public who are worried about jobs, mortgages and public services. We have a leader who can do just that in Rishi Sunak.”
The matter of his wealth, however, could still be a vulnerability long after the current contest ends. Steven Fielding, a politics professor at the University of Nottingham, said that if Sunak does emerge victorious, the opposition Labour Party will likely to try score points on Sunak for being “out of touch,” like they did earlier in the year, when in a discussion about rising prices for foodstuffs, he described all the “different breads in my house.”
And given the economic head winds, the cost of living crisis is expected to get a lot worse for millions of Brits, who are already feeling the squeeze.
Fielding also said that Truss’s disastrous economic policy, which saw the market swiftly reject her plans for unfunded tax cuts, meant that the next leader’s policies will “basically be a prisoner of Liz Truss and the consequences of Liz Truss.”
“Whoever becomes leader, they have two years where their economic program is already decided. It’s going to be pretty bad for the British public,” he added, noting that it will mostly be damage control and balancing between taxes and spending.
“It’s still different colors of bad,” he said.
torontosun.com
The couple's money comes primarily from Murty's stake in her father's company, Infosys.
Author of the article:Washington Post
Washington Post
Karla Adam
Publishing date:Oct 24, 2022 • 1 day ago • 5 minute read • 19 Comments
LONDON — Rishi Sunak is one of the wealthiest people in Britain and will be the most powerful when he becomes prime minister. It will be the first time in history that the residents of Downing Street are richer than those of Buckingham Palace.
Brits are used to being ruled by elites — Boris Johnson was about as elite as they come — but Sunak is not just rich, he is super rich, which has prompted some to ask whether his vast fortune makes him too rich to be prime minister.
His backers, however, say it is precisely this background and the years spent making money that qualify him to lead a deeply damaged nation during these economically tumultuous times.
Sunak, a former banker, and his wife, Indian tech heiress Akshata Murty, have an estimated fortune of about 730 million pounds (US$827 million), according to the Sunday Times Rich List. On the 2022 list, the monarch was estimated to have about 370 million pounds ($419 million) by comparison.
The couple’s money comes primarily from Murty’s stake in her father’s company, Infosys. She also owns start-up incubator Catamaran Ventures UK and has shares in a half dozen or so other companies. The couple have at least three homes in Britain, as well as a Santa Monica, California, property valued at around $6 million.
According to the Guardian, the Sunak family – they have two daughters, Krishna and Anoushka – spend the week in their five-bedroom house in west London and weekends in North Yorkshire at a Georgian manor house. The paper said it has been “transformed into something of a wellness retreat with a £400,000 indoor swimming pool, gym, yoga studio, hot tub and tennis court.”
Does any of that matter to voters?
“It’s not binary,” said Robert Ford, a professor of politics at the University of Manchester. “The British as a whole don’t think that being wealthy is a bad or disqualifying thing. There are lots of very wealthy individuals who are very popular with the public.
“People do care about wealthy people fixing the rules for themselves. It’s non-dom status for your wife while you are the chancellor, it’s green cards in the U.S. in case things go south, it’s family tax numbers being massaged down. People are like, ‘well, I don’t mind so long as you pay your taxes, but it really annoys me if you don’t,'” he said.
Earlier this year, Sunak’s wife was at the center of a tax scandal after it emerged that she had been filing in the United Kingdom as a “non-domiciled” resident, which allowed her to avoid paying British taxes on the substantial income she earned abroad. The family had been living at 10 Downing Street, in the apartment designated for Britain’s finance minister (the living quarters are smaller than 11 Downing Street, where prime minsters generally prefer to live). Moving vans arrived when the scandal was still simmering.
It also came out around the same time that Sunak had held a U.S. green card while he was chancellor of the Exchequer, or finance minister. He spokesman said he returned it last year.
Sunak’s critics have sought to play up his privileged upbringing. They point out that he attended the 600-year-old Winchester College, where annual fees for those who board, like he did, today exceed $52,000.
In the last leadership election this summer, they circulated a video clip from a 2007 BBC documentary in which he suggests he doesn’t have any “working-class friends.”
He was also attacked for giving a speech to grass-roots Conservative Party members this summer where he said that, as chancellor, he tried to reverse funding formulas “that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas” so as to help wealthier towns.
During these troubled times of high energy prices and runaway inflation, however, Sunak’s supporters counter that his background – not his wealth, but his own experience in finance and at the treasury – make him the right man for the job right now.
Before becoming a lawmaker – only seven years ago, a rapid ascent in British political terms – Sunak worked as an investment banker with Goldman Sachs and as a hedge fund manager. He most recently served in government as chancellor, where he became hugely popular as he dished money out during the pandemic.
He has consistently polled better than any of his contenders in this leadership race on economic competence. In the last race against Liz Truss, Sunak said that Truss’s plans were based on “fantasy” economics – a pronouncement that proved prescient when her “mini-budget” caused widespread turmoil in the markets.
Jeremy Hunt, the current British chancellor who will be hoping to keep his job, has come out in support of Sunak. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he said the British people were looking for someone who could handle the current crisis.
“Our public finances, market credibility and international reputation have taken a serious blow. To restore stability and confidence, we need a leader who can be trusted to make difficult choices,” he wrote. “We also need someone who can explain those choices to members of the public who are worried about jobs, mortgages and public services. We have a leader who can do just that in Rishi Sunak.”
The matter of his wealth, however, could still be a vulnerability long after the current contest ends. Steven Fielding, a politics professor at the University of Nottingham, said that if Sunak does emerge victorious, the opposition Labour Party will likely to try score points on Sunak for being “out of touch,” like they did earlier in the year, when in a discussion about rising prices for foodstuffs, he described all the “different breads in my house.”
And given the economic head winds, the cost of living crisis is expected to get a lot worse for millions of Brits, who are already feeling the squeeze.
Fielding also said that Truss’s disastrous economic policy, which saw the market swiftly reject her plans for unfunded tax cuts, meant that the next leader’s policies will “basically be a prisoner of Liz Truss and the consequences of Liz Truss.”
“Whoever becomes leader, they have two years where their economic program is already decided. It’s going to be pretty bad for the British public,” he added, noting that it will mostly be damage control and balancing between taxes and spending.
“It’s still different colors of bad,” he said.
RICHER THAN THE ROYALS: Next UK PM Rishi Sunak's wealth in spotlight
The couple's money comes primarily from Murty's stake in her father's company, Infosys.
Sunak is busy forming the new Government tonight.
I must say that I am very impressed and happy with some of the appointments he has made.
Astonishingly, he has made the right-wing Brexiteer Braverman the Home Secretary, just SIX DAYS after she was sacked by Truss to the delight of the Left. I was angry when she was sacked so now I'm very happy that Sunak has brought her back.
The right-wing Brexiteer Badenoch is the Trade Secretary.
Penny Mordaunt remains Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council.
Meanwhile, Dominic Raab has replaced Therese Coffey as Deputy Prime Minister. Coffey is now Environment Secretary.
Sunak's Cabinet appointments so far...
I must say that I am very impressed and happy with some of the appointments he has made.
Astonishingly, he has made the right-wing Brexiteer Braverman the Home Secretary, just SIX DAYS after she was sacked by Truss to the delight of the Left. I was angry when she was sacked so now I'm very happy that Sunak has brought her back.
The right-wing Brexiteer Badenoch is the Trade Secretary.
Penny Mordaunt remains Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council.
Meanwhile, Dominic Raab has replaced Therese Coffey as Deputy Prime Minister. Coffey is now Environment Secretary.
Sunak's Cabinet appointments so far...
- Jeremy Hunt, chancellor
- Dominic Raab, deputy PM and justice secretary
- James Cleverly, foreign secretary
- Ben Wallace, defence secretary
- Suella Braverman, home secretary
- Steve Barclay, health secretary
- Oliver Dowden, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
- Grant Shapps, business secretary
- Penny Mordaunt, leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council
- Gillian Keegan, education secretary
- Nadhim Zahawi, Conservative Party chairman and minister without portfolio
- Kemi Badenoch, trade secretary
- Mel Stride, work and pensions secretary
- Michael Gove, levelling up secretary
- Michelle Donelan, culture secretary
- Therese Coffey, environment secretary
- Chris Heaton-Harris, Northern Ireland secretary
- Alister Jack, Scotland secretary
- David Davies, Wales secretary
- Simon Hart, chief whip
- Lord True, leader of the House of Lords
- Victoria Prentis, attorney general
- Jeremy Quin, paymaster general and cabinet office minister
- Mark Harper, transport secretary
- John Glen, chief secretary to the Treasury
- Johnny Mercer, veterans' affairs minister
- Tom Tugendhat, security minister
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Next UK PM Rishi Sunak's wealth in spotlight
The couple's money comes primarily from Murty's stake in her father's company, Infosys.
Author of the article:Washington Post
Washington Post
Karla Adam
Publishing date:Oct 24, 2022 • 1 day ago • 5 minute read • 19 Comments
LONDON — Rishi Sunak is one of the wealthiest people in Britain and will be the most powerful when he becomes prime minister. It will be the first time in history that the residents of Downing Street are richer than those of Buckingham Palace.
Brits are used to being ruled by elites — Boris Johnson was about as elite as they come — but Sunak is not just rich, he is super rich, which has prompted some to ask whether his vast fortune makes him too rich to be prime minister.
His backers, however, say it is precisely this background and the years spent making money that qualify him to lead a deeply damaged nation during these economically tumultuous times.
Sunak, a former banker, and his wife, Indian tech heiress Akshata Murty, have an estimated fortune of about 730 million pounds (US$827 million), according to the Sunday Times Rich List. On the 2022 list, the monarch was estimated to have about 370 million pounds ($419 million) by comparison.
The couple’s money comes primarily from Murty’s stake in her father’s company, Infosys. She also owns start-up incubator Catamaran Ventures UK and has shares in a half dozen or so other companies. The couple have at least three homes in Britain, as well as a Santa Monica, California, property valued at around $6 million.
According to the Guardian, the Sunak family – they have two daughters, Krishna and Anoushka – spend the week in their five-bedroom house in west London and weekends in North Yorkshire at a Georgian manor house. The paper said it has been “transformed into something of a wellness retreat with a £400,000 indoor swimming pool, gym, yoga studio, hot tub and tennis court.”
Does any of that matter to voters?
“It’s not binary,” said Robert Ford, a professor of politics at the University of Manchester. “The British as a whole don’t think that being wealthy is a bad or disqualifying thing. There are lots of very wealthy individuals who are very popular with the public.
“People do care about wealthy people fixing the rules for themselves. It’s non-dom status for your wife while you are the chancellor, it’s green cards in the U.S. in case things go south, it’s family tax numbers being massaged down. People are like, ‘well, I don’t mind so long as you pay your taxes, but it really annoys me if you don’t,'” he said.
Earlier this year, Sunak’s wife was at the center of a tax scandal after it emerged that she had been filing in the United Kingdom as a “non-domiciled” resident, which allowed her to avoid paying British taxes on the substantial income she earned abroad. The family had been living at 10 Downing Street, in the apartment designated for Britain’s finance minister (the living quarters are smaller than 11 Downing Street, where prime minsters generally prefer to live). Moving vans arrived when the scandal was still simmering.
It also came out around the same time that Sunak had held a U.S. green card while he was chancellor of the Exchequer, or finance minister. He spokesman said he returned it last year.
Sunak’s critics have sought to play up his privileged upbringing. They point out that he attended the 600-year-old Winchester College, where annual fees for those who board, like he did, today exceed $52,000.
In the last leadership election this summer, they circulated a video clip from a 2007 BBC documentary in which he suggests he doesn’t have any “working-class friends.”
He was also attacked for giving a speech to grass-roots Conservative Party members this summer where he said that, as chancellor, he tried to reverse funding formulas “that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas” so as to help wealthier towns.
During these troubled times of high energy prices and runaway inflation, however, Sunak’s supporters counter that his background – not his wealth, but his own experience in finance and at the treasury – make him the right man for the job right now.
Before becoming a lawmaker – only seven years ago, a rapid ascent in British political terms – Sunak worked as an investment banker with Goldman Sachs and as a hedge fund manager. He most recently served in government as chancellor, where he became hugely popular as he dished money out during the pandemic.
He has consistently polled better than any of his contenders in this leadership race on economic competence. In the last race against Liz Truss, Sunak said that Truss’s plans were based on “fantasy” economics – a pronouncement that proved prescient when her “mini-budget” caused widespread turmoil in the markets.
Jeremy Hunt, the current British chancellor who will be hoping to keep his job, has come out in support of Sunak. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he said the British people were looking for someone who could handle the current crisis.
“Our public finances, market credibility and international reputation have taken a serious blow. To restore stability and confidence, we need a leader who can be trusted to make difficult choices,” he wrote. “We also need someone who can explain those choices to members of the public who are worried about jobs, mortgages and public services. We have a leader who can do just that in Rishi Sunak.”
The matter of his wealth, however, could still be a vulnerability long after the current contest ends. Steven Fielding, a politics professor at the University of Nottingham, said that if Sunak does emerge victorious, the opposition Labour Party will likely to try score points on Sunak for being “out of touch,” like they did earlier in the year, when in a discussion about rising prices for foodstuffs, he described all the “different breads in my house.”
And given the economic head winds, the cost of living crisis is expected to get a lot worse for millions of Brits, who are already feeling the squeeze.
Fielding also said that Truss’s disastrous economic policy, which saw the market swiftly reject her plans for unfunded tax cuts, meant that the next leader’s policies will “basically be a prisoner of Liz Truss and the consequences of Liz Truss.”
“Whoever becomes leader, they have two years where their economic program is already decided. It’s going to be pretty bad for the British public,” he added, noting that it will mostly be damage control and balancing between taxes and spending.
“It’s still different colors of bad,” he said.
RICHER THAN THE ROYALS: Next UK PM Rishi Sunak's wealth in spotlight
The couple's money comes primarily from Murty's stake in her father's company, Infosys.
Is Sunak the most powerful person in Britain or is the King the most powerful?
Unexpected good stuff going on from Sunak (although I thought that about Truss when she set her Cabinet up seven weeks ago)...
Sunak brings Braverman back as Home Secretary six days after she resigned
Sunak has been a supporter of a reduction in immigration and Braverman wants Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights
Sunak brings Braverman back as Home Secretary six days after she resigned
Sunak has been a supporter of a reduction in immigration and Braverman wants Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights
Sunak is the first Hindu British PM
Sunak swore his oath as an MP on the Bhagvad Gita, a revered Hindu text. He worshipped a cow during a recent ritual, lit Diwali lamps at his Downing Street residence and says he loves cricket, a veritable religion in India.
In August, Mr Sunak opened a campaign event comprising a largely British Indian gathering in north London with traditional greetings. He also broke into Hindi, and said he would work to boost ties with India if he became the Prime Minister.
Rishi Sunak: India glee over new British PM
Indians welcome Rishi Sunak's elevation, but the jury is out on whether India will be a priority for him.
www.bbc.co.uk
However his policies turn out for the UK (and I wish him the best), this example of religious tolerance (or indifference) in the party that could be regarded as the party of the Old Guard is welcome.
Informative piece, Blackleaf. Thanks, guv.
Informative piece, Blackleaf. Thanks, guv.
Well Poopsie, are Hindus more or less Conservatives than white Christian Conservatives?
When I hit 300 and retire from a Govt job at the FAA will I be oblivious to the people that make modern America or Canada modern?
The party of the Old Guard is Labour.
In the last 43 years the Tories have had three female leaders and now a Hindu leader.
Compare that to the Labour leaders (they had the Jewish David Miliband as leader several years ago but that's about it).
The Tories have had a Jewish PM (Benjamin Disraeli).
Doesn't stop the Left calling the Tories "racists and sexists" though.
Not only do we have a Hindu PM, but our Deputy PM Dominic Raab is Jewish.
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Fair point. The left-ish parties are sounding older every year, replaying the grievances that got them elected 30 years back.
The right-ish parties, having tired of getting their butts kicked, have learned a thing or two, and are now back in the game (and doing quite nicely).
It's the cycle.
Reform UK (formerly the Brexit Party), who are on the rise after the recent Tory disaster, attack Sunak for supporting fracking 10 weeks ago and then banning it as soon as he became Prime Minister.
The Brexiteers are gunning for these lying leftist parties and the damage they are doing.
The Brexiteers are gunning for these lying leftist parties and the damage they are doing.
However, some good news from Sunak's government.
New Equalities Secretary and Trade Secretary Badenoch - a rising star and possible future PM - today in the Commons upset the LGBT folk, attacking Pink News and the pronouns lobby as our youthful new PM looked on...
New Equalities Secretary and Trade Secretary Badenoch - a rising star and possible future PM - today in the Commons upset the LGBT folk, attacking Pink News and the pronouns lobby as our youthful new PM looked on...
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Yeah, heard the UK has a serious issue with TERFS and hate towards the GLBTQIA+, especially Trans people. Sad.
Heard from who?
The UK is the fourth most nufter-friendliest country in the world. Canada ranks way down in seventh.
Gay-friendly - Wikipedia
Heard from who?
The UK is the fourth most nufter-friendliest country in the world. Canada ranks way down in seventh.
Gay-friendly - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
Heard from, you know, people who live there and actually have to DEAL with TERFS and how bad things are.
Well, I guess the Tories got half of what they wanted.
Of course, if they really wanted BoreJo back, why'd they elect Rishi?
Of course, if they really wanted BoreJo back, why'd they elect Rishi?
Because Boris pulled out of the contest leaving only Sunak and Mordaunt. And once it got to the time it was to enter Round Two, Mordaunt didn't have enough nominations to go through to Round Two, leaving only Sunak standing.
Our last three PMs have been elected less democratically each time: Boris resoundingly won a General Election, inflicting Labour's worst defeat since 1936. Truss got all the way through to the Final of the Tory leadership contest and won it against Sunak (with only Tory members being allowed to vote) and then Sunak wins the Tory leadership constest only by default without even Tory members having a say.
Ahhh - so not science, just heresay from a couple of people.
Well. If they're as honest as YOU are, how could we doubt them?