Rishi Sunak and wife Akshata are wealthier than King Charles ’without lifting a finger

Last year the combined wealth of the Sunak’s overtook that of King Charles, thanks to rocketing dividend payouts from the shares in her father’s firm

Rishi Sunak and his wife make nearly £1million more a month than they did four years ago – without lifting a finger.

The PM and Akshata Murty raked it in from investments. Labour and the Lib Dems say it shows how out of touch he is with the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation 

The 134% pay rise for the Prime Minister and heiress Akshata Murty has happened without either of them lifting a finger. Instead it is thanks to rocketing dividend payouts from the shares she has in her father’s firm.

And Mr Sunak has been enjoying higher earnings from his secret investments made during his days as a hedge fund manager. 

Our findings will be hard to swallow as the average voter goes to the polls feeling worse off since the last election – the first time this has happened since 1955.

Average real household disposable income per person has fallen by 1% since 2019, according to the Office for National Statistics.

In comparison, even allowing for inflation, the Sunaks’ combined earnings have soared by 88% in real terms since the last election. Last year their combined wealth overtook that of King Charles.

Jonathan Ashworth, Shadow Paymaster General and Labour ’s Leicester South candidate, said: “No wonder Rishi Sunak doesn’t have a clue what working people go through. He is totally out of touch. 

“Under the Tories, taxes on working people have risen to a 70-year high.

“ Jeremy Hunt has confirmed their manifesto is unfunded. The Conservatives’ uncosted plans will mean £4,800 more on mortgages.

“We need a government that understands working people.”

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney added: “It is no wonder the PM is woefully out of touch with the worst cost of living crisis in a generation.

“The top 0.1% need to start paying their fair share of tax, starting with closing loopholes.”

Our probe found that Ms Murty’s dividends from her £550m inherited Infosys shares have jumped from £7.16m in 2020 to £16.94m this year. The next payout of £10.36m is three days before the General Election.

Meanwhile, Mr Sunak’s tax returns show he earned £2.23m last year, up from £1.02m in the 2019/20 tax year.

The £139,477 he earns as PM and an MP makes up barely 6% of his income. He earned nearly twice as much – or £276,218 – in dividends last year but most of his profit came from the £1.8m in capital gains he made from his investments.

In all, the couple’s earnings are up £11m a year – or nearly £1m a month, before tax.

Our analysis of Mr Sunak’s tax return shows that he has paid a 22% tax rate over the last four years, less than half the top rate of income tax.

This is thanks to lower rates of tax on capital gains and means that he pays the same rate of tax as a nurse who earns in a year what he earns in a week.

The average full-time wage of £42,210 a year, which could be earned by a senior nurse with eight years of experience, is what he banked each week last year.

Mr Sunak put those investments into a “blind trust” when he entered Government and does not need to disclose what they are.

Until recently, Ms Murty’s dividends could have been tax-free, thanks to her non-dom status, which is estimated to have saved her £20m in income tax over seven years.

After controversy over her non-dom status in 2022, she vowed to pay UK tax on all her worldwide earnings.

The Sunaks are worth more than King Charles, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List, with a fortune of £651m, up £122m or 23% in a year. Mr Sunak is the first top politician to be on the list in its 35-year history.

Dividends are payouts from companies to shareholders, often paid twice a year by large firms.

Capital gains are profits made when assets, such as shares and properties, rise in value and tax is due when they are sold.

Wealthy people enjoy lower rates of tax on capital gains and dividends than they do on income.

Mr Sunak continues to face accusations that he is out of touch with ordinary voters and their struggles.

The young Sunak as a boy ( Image: PA)

He provoked ridicule when he told how he grew up without Sky TV.

Pushed by an interviewer to give an example of something that he grew up without, the PM said: “Famously, Sky TV, so that was something that we never had growing up actually.”

The Conservatives did not respond to our requests for comment.

£400k spent on schooling

Rishi Sunak has repeatedly suggested his privately educated leg-up was partly due to scholarships rather than his parents’ ability to pay.

But there is no evidence he ever won a scholarship to the three private schools he attended at a cost, in today’s money, of more than £400,000.

It has been reported that Mr Sunak took the Winchester scholarship exams but failed and so was offered a normal fee-paying place.

His team confirmed this to Channel 4 News in 2022 and it matches what his father told BBC2 in 2001.

He said: “The fees at Winchester were double what we would pay if he went to the local school.”

Four-home PM’s our wealthiest

Rishi Sunak is the richest-ever Prime Minister with £15million of property.

He and his heiress wife have two homes in London, one in Yorkshire and a fourth in Santa Monica, California worth £5.5million.

They have a five-bedroom mews house in Kensington, West London, worth more than £7million and a second property in the capital kept just for visiting family.

The couple’s country pile is a Grade II-listed Georgian manor house bought for £1.5million in 2010 in his Richmond seat. It has a swimming pool, gym, yoga studio and tennis court – all on 12 acres of land.

The PM owns four cars including a £94,000 Range Rover and is a fan of £3,500 Henry Herbert suits and £450 Prada loafers – and has a £180 coffee mug.

Thomas Brown