by Bill White
[Transcript]
Here’s another non-story for you -- the UK Media is doing its level best to make anyone who will listen upset with Rishi Sunak. And while my comments have the effect of encouraging this nonsense, my take is to point the finger at the truly guilty, not the useful idiots among us.
First a little background… Sunak is a British politician, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, since 2020, who was previously the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
As part of the month-long and growing assault on everything “Russian”, Sunak is now being condemned by many for his wife’s very small shareholding in Infosys, a global company based in India that was founded by her father, which has committed the unforgivable act of continuing to operate in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.
Again, according to the media, InfoSys has links with Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, but the evidence of this claim is statements made by the media after the invasion began.
The most recent uproar is that Akshata Murthy, who is an Indian citizen, has non-domiciled status, referred to by most as “non-dom”, meaning that she doesn’t have to pay income tax on income earned abroad despite living in the UK. This is in full compliance with UK tax laws.
In fact, the Constitution of India does not allow holding Indian citizenship and the citizenship of a foreign country simultaneously, I guess those people who are criticising Sunak would prefer that his wife either give up her Indian citizenship or pay tax in both countries.
I’d bet that this storm in a teacup originated from Number 10. From where I sit it looks like the handiwork of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is probably still sore over what some described as a lack of support from Sunak during Bojo’s recent Partygate troubles.
This kind of thing is so, so typical of the UK; a Nanny State, where the average person has nothing or next to nothing and exists week to week, supported by the taxpayers and is easily rallied against anyone else who has more than they do.
BoJo wants to make sure that Sunak is never Prime Minister, but I think it’ll take more than his wife paying all the tax she’s legally required to pay to unseat the Chancellor of the Exchequer…
###