While Narayana Murthy Is ‘Proud,’ UK Notices Sunak Is Worth More Than King Charles

LONDON, (IANS) – Conservative party politician Rishi Sunak on October 25 officially became the Prime Minister of UK after meeting King Charles III at Buckingham Palace.

In his first address as the Prime Minister, Sunak said: “UK is under economic distress… economic stability tops my agenda… my actions will speak louder.”

“I will give my all to help the people… hope to live up to the demands,” he added.

The result of the widely documented race for office on October 24 contest caps a spectacularly rapid rise to the pinnacle of British politics.

Sunak was first elected as an MP in 2015  and supported leaving the EU. He subsequently became a junior minister in Theresa May’s government. It was another former PM Boris Johnson who gave Sunak his first major role when he first appointed him as Chancellor of the Treasury in 2020. Sunak won popularity during the early weeks of the pandemic. But the “Party gate” scandal that took down Boris Johnson also tarnished his reputation, and he became archrivals with Johnson after quitting his government earlier this year.

Prime Minster Rishi Sunak was born in Southampton in 1980 to Indian parents who had moved to the UK from east Africa. His father was a general practitioner, and his mother ran her own pharmacy.

The eldest of three children, Sunak was educated at a private boarding school, Winchester College, which costs 43,335 pounds a year to attend. He was head boy and has in recent years made multiple donations to the school.

Sunak went on to study politics, philosophy, and economics at the University of Oxford. He was awarded a first-class degree. He later gained an MBA at Stanford University, where he met Akshata Murty, his future wife, but where few others remember him, The Guardian reported.

Murty, 42, is the daughter of the Indian billionaire NR Narayana Murthy, often described as the Bill Gates of India, who founded the software company Infosys.

The Infosys co-founder, reacting to son-in-law Sunak’s victory, on October 25 said “he was proud of him” and “Congratulations to Rishi. We are confident that he will do his best for the people of the United Kingdom.”

According to reports, his daughter has a 0.91 percent stake in the company, worth about 700 million pounds.

The couple married in her hometown of Bengaluru in a two-day ceremony in 2009 attended by 1,000 guests. They have two daughters, Krishna and Anoushka.

In April this year, it emerged that Murty was a non-domiciled UK resident, meaning she avoided UK taxes on her international earnings in return for paying an annual charge of 30,000 pounds. Without that non-doom status, she could have been liable for more than 20 million pounds of UK taxes on these windfalls, it was reported. After a public outcry, her spokesperson announced she would start paying UK taxes on her overseas earnings to relieve political pressure on her husband.

Still, Sunak and Murty’s combined fortune is estimated to be 730 million pounds, double the estimated 300 million-350 million pounds wealth of King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort.

They own four properties spread across the world and valued at more than 15 million pounds.