Firms backed by Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty went bust owing £1million tax
Taxpayers were left on the hook for more than £1million by firms backed by Rishi Sunak’s wife that went bust.
The out-of-touch PM last week suggested workers should be willing to chuck in their jobs to take risks. Appearing at an event alongside tech billionaire Elon Musk, he said he wanted Britain to replicate the culture of “places like Silicon Valley… where people are unafraid to give up the security of a regular pay cheque to go and start something and be comfortable with failure”.
Research shows Akshata Murty was involved in a string of companies that collapsed, leaving taxpayers out of pocket. Digme Fitness, a high-end gym firm in which her investment company Catamaran Ventures held a stake, went bust owing the taxman £415,000. Mrs Wordsmith, a children’s literacy startup also backed by Ms Murty, went into liquidation leaving £249,000 owed to HMRC. In addition, Lava Mayfair Club, a private members’ gym in which she had personally invested, collapsed with a debt of £374,000 to the taxman.
The New Craftsman, a luxury furniture firm that received nearly £300,000 in taxpayer-funded loans, is another firm to go bust that she had a stake in.
The PM and his wife are the richest inhabitants of Downing Street in history with an estimated £520milllion fortune, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. Much of their wealth is thanks to the £481million stake Ms Murty holds in Infosys.
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The couple’s property empire includes a £1.5million manor house in his North Yorkshire constituency. They have built a new private heated swimming pool in the grounds, which uses so much energy that the local electricity network had to be upgraded to meet its power demands. They also own a £7million London home in Kensington and a £5.5 million penthouse overlooking the beach in Santa Monica, California.
Mr Sunak faced a backlash last year while Chancellor after it emerged his wife was a non-dom, meaning she did not have to pay UK taxes on her overseas income. After details of her non-dom status appeared in the press, he initially said his wife had not "done anything wrong" and it was unfair to attack her as a "private citizen". But following days of negative headlines, Ms Murty announced she would pay UK taxes on her overseas income. A non-dom is someone who lives in this country but declares their permanent home to be somewhere else.
In August, Mr Sunak apologised after an investigation by the Commons sleaze watchdog found he failed to properly declare his wife’s financial interests. At a Commons grilling, he did not tell MPs that she owns shares in a childcare firm that was boosted by a key policy in the Budget to incentivise the recruitment of childminders. The PM was found to have "inadvertently" broken the MPs' code of conduct by not declaring the stake Ms Murty had in Koru Kids.
A Downing Street spokesman declined to comment on the firms linked to Ms Murty that went bankrupt owing the taxman money.
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