19 April 2023 , 14:59
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Rishi Sunak has been accused of a “complete lack of transparency” as his wife’s investments worth hundreds of thousands of pounds were kept secret.
The PM’s list of ministerial interests was finally published today after a probe was launched into whether he had broken the rules.
But the document did not include details of the shareholdings owned by his heiress wife, Akshata Murty.
Mr Sunak is under investigation by Parliament's standards watchdog over claims he broke the MPs' code of conduct by not declaring his wife owns shares in a childcare firm that was boosted by a key policy in the Budget.
The document published today failed to shed any new light on Ms Murty’s finances.
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Under the section for relevant interests held by a spouse or close relative, Mr Sunak's entry included his wife's venture capital company Catamaran Ventures and unnamed "direct shareholdings".
Rishi Sunak has not made public details of his wife's vast shareholdings (Thomas Krych/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock)A footnote adds that these include her "minority shareholding" in Koru Kids, but no details were given for any of her other shareholdings.
Farcically, the list did not include her £468million stake in Infosys, the Indian IT firm founded by her billionaire father.
Keir Starmer’s spokesman said: “What we continue to see is a culture through successive Conservative prime ministers of not being fully open and transparent with the public.
“We’ve seen consistently with this government a complete lack of transparency.”
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner added: “Rishi Sunak is failing to deliver the integrity he promised and has instead chosen to preserve the rotten standards regime of his predecessors.
There will be no accountability while the Prime Minister continues to mark his own homework on ethics.”
Mr Sunak’s ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus defended the decision not to publish further details.
Keir Starmer accused ministers of "not being fully open and transparent with the public" (PA)In a foreword to the document he wrote, said: "The list is not a register of interests and does not therefore include every interest that a minister has declared in relation to themselves and their family members.
"To do so would represent an excessive degree of intrusion into the private affairs of ministers that would be unreasonable, particularly in respect of their family members.
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"The list instead documents those interests, including of close family, which are, or may be perceived to be, directly relevant to a minister's ministerial responsibilities."
Downing Street stressed it was the decision of the independent adviser on ministerial interests on what is in the public interest and what is relevant.
Asked whether the Prime Minister could have disagreed with his independent adviser and published more information in aid of transparency, Mr Sunak's press secretary said: "In principle, but I think there is also a lot of things you have to consider, including the precedent you are breaking potentially for the future interests that are declared by others - including their family members."
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