Rishi Sunak, even richer than Carlos III

Rishi Sunak is the richest MP in British history, he has been the richest Chancellor of the Exchequer and the richest cabinet member.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
22 October 2022 Saturday 23:30
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Rishi Sunak, even richer than Carlos III

Rishi Sunak is the richest MP in British history, he has been the richest Chancellor of the Exchequer and the richest cabinet member. And if he comes to Downing Street this week he will be twice as rich as King Charles III. Perhaps too much for the taste of his compatriots?

Of the trio of possible candidates to inherit from Liz Truss the poisoned chalice of the conservative leadership (Boris Johnson and Penny Mordaunt are the other two), Sunak is the one who enjoys the most support in the House of Commons, and already has the necessary one hundred signatures to throw his hat into the ring. But among Tory militants who may have the last word, he is not nearly as popular.

The former chancellor of the Exchequer, of Indian origin (his grandparents emigrated from the Punjab to East Africa, and his parents from Kenya and Tanzania to Southampton), was chosen by his colleagues in the Commons in the race to succeed Johnson, but the bases they preferred the more populist Truss. And in the fight to succeed Truss, if he finally stands, he would also be the favorite of his fellow deputies, but he fears losing again and that the militants will give themselves up again in the arms of Boris, who returned to London yesterday after his paid vacations at the house of friends in the Dominican Republic, despite having a seat in Parliament and that the country's economy was suffering its worst crisis in several decades, but as if it was not the thing with him.

During the pandemic, Sunak was an economy minister highly regarded for aid to companies in danger of bankruptcy and people who could not work, the British equivalent of the ERTE, an ambitious program that cost the Treasury 450,000 million euros that are now held to pay (hence largely the financial crisis and the resentment of the funds that buy government bonds). He even subsidized part of lunch and dinner bills for a few months to encourage going out and giving restaurants and the hospitality sector a cable.

When the situation more or less normalized, his image began to decline, and many were annoyed that he wore 500-euro shoes and a 5,000-euro tailored suit in his public appearances, while boasting of having paid 200 for a cup of “intelligent” coffee that always keeps the drink at the desired temperature, neither too hot nor too cold. He has four homes: a fabulous mansion in Kensington, another owned by Downton Abbey in the Yorkshire countryside, a good apartment in central London for family visits and a house on the beach in Santa Monica (California), like the actors. of Hollywood, a luxury reserved for great millionaires like him. All prime ministers tend to be privileged without economic problems, but he would be more so than any other, at a time when there are people who do not have money to eat every day or heat their homes.

Sunak's fortune is valued at around 850 million euros, double that attributed to Carlos III and the queen consort, Camila (although theirs is much more opaque). The would-be Tory leader made good money working for Goldman Sachs and various investment funds, but the bulk of the family capital comes from his wife Akshata Murty's shares and dividends in Infosys, the software company owned by his father. the.

The revelation that Murty was not tax-resident in Britain (a perfectly legal technicality) in order to pay less tax was another factor in Sunak's progressive fall from grace, who attributed the press leaks to none other than himself. Johnson for seeing him – as has turned out to be true – as a possible rival. His revenge consisted in stabbing Boris, resigning as chancellor of the Exchequer and precipitating the events that led to his downfall. And the revenge of the Tory militants was to punish the traitor.

Six members of the current cabinet, the former Minister of the Interior Priti Patel, the extreme right of the Conservative Party, the most radical supporters of Brexit and the Eurosceptics are with Boris and see him as the messiah, the savior, from whom the throne was usurped and the only one capable of preventing an electoral debacle. The moderate wing, the money and the markets are with Sunak, the billionaire.