UK's Rishi Sunak faces call to explain wife’s £400m Infosys stake

A company in which Akshata Murty has a stake is still operating in Russia, reports say

British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak. Reuters

The UK's Labour party has called on Chancellor Rishi Sunak to explain whether a company in which his wife has a reported £400 million ($499m) stake is continuing to operate in Russia.

The Indian IT giant Infosys is still operating in Moscow, the Mirror reported, despite having announced last month that it was shutting its office in the Russian capital.

Mr Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty, has a 0.93 per cent stake in the business, which was founded by her father, Narayana, although he retired in 2014 and has had no further involvement.

“This is a matter for Infosys and should be addressed to them," a spokeswoman for Ms Murty said.

“Ms Murty is one of many minority shareholders and has no involvement in the operational decisions of the company.”

But Labour said there were still questions for Mr Sunak to answer if his family was benefitting from a company that remained active in Russia.

“It is really important that the chancellor clarifies what is happening here and whether his immediate family is benefitting from Infosys’ continued presence in Russia," shadow Treasury minister Tulip Siddiq said.

“We can’t have a situation where a UK chancellor and his family maintain economic interests in the Putin regime.”

Infosys said: “As you are aware, during the quarterly results, Infosys announced its decision to transition services from Russia to its global delivery centres.

“While the company does not have any active relationships with local Russian enterprises, we have a small team of fewer than 100 employees in Russia, which services some of our global clients.

“We are currently working closely with those clients that are being impacted to enable a smooth transition.”

Last month Ms Murty, an Indian national, announced she would pay UK taxes on all her worldwide income after it was disclosed that she was non-domiciled in Britain for tax purposes.

The disclosure, along with the revelation that Mr Sunak retained a US green card while he was chancellor, was widely seen to have damaged her husband’s hopes of succeeding Prime Minister Boris Johnson as Conservative leader.