LONDON (AP) \u2014 Britain\u2019s Treasury chief, once seen as a potential candidate for prime minister, is fighting to save his reputation by requesting an investigation of his own conduct after a series of news reports on his family\u2019s finances raised questions about his judgment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rishi Sunak, a 41-year-old former hedge fund manager, asked Prime Minister Boris Johnson to direct his adviser on ministerial standards to review all of the disclosures Sunak has made \u2014 such as his\u00a0wife\u2019s tax exemption status\u00a0and her connection to a company that received government contracts \u2014 since he became a government minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunak said he was confident all \u201crelevant information\u201d was appropriately declared, but he wanted an investigation to reassure the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy overriding concern is that the public retain confidence in the answers they are given, and I believe the best way of achieving this is to ensure those answers are entirely independent, without bias or favor,\u201d Sunak wrote in a letter to Johnson dated Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunak\u2019s standing has been damaged by revelations that his Indian-born wife took advantage of rules that allow many foreigners to escape U.K. taxes on their overseas income. It came at the same time he was raising income taxes for most residents already facing a\u00a0cost-of-living crisis tied to soaring energy prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunak defended his wife after the first reports\u00a0that she had opted for \u201cnon-domiciled\u201d tax status, saying she is a private citizen with her own career and independent investments and shouldn\u2019t be subject to the same level of scrutiny as a politician.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But by Friday, his wife, Akshata Murty, a fashion designer and the daughter of an Indian billionaire, said she didn\u2019t want the issue to become a \u201cdistraction\u201d for her husband so she had decided to pay U.K. taxes on her worldwide income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Married people in the U.K. file separate tax returns, unlike in the U.S. where many file joint returns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the brouhaha hasn\u2019t ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party, wrote to Johnson on Sunday asking that his ethics adviser investigate six issues relating to Sunak\u2019s disclosures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These include allegations that he failed to reveal his wife\u2019s stake in Infosys, an information technology company that has won several contracts from the government, and concerns about the so-called blind trust Sunak established to allow him to maintain his holdings in an investment fund while giving up any role in their day-to-day management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Steve Reed, Labour\u2019s spokesman on justice issues, said Monday that he believes Sunak has violated government rules on ministerial conduct. Ministers sometimes resign if they break these rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf the chancellor\u2019s household is benefiting from contracts of that kind, that should have been something that he declared in the register of interests, but he didn\u2019t,\u201d Reed told the BBC. \u201cThere\u2019s a whole list of areas where the chancellor appears to have failed to declare things he should have declared.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunak\u2019s Cabinet colleagues have defended him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Environment Minister George Eustice rejected suggestions that Sunak was \u201ctoo rich\u201d to be chancellor of the exchequer or even potentially prime minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s right that we should have a rule that says you\u2019re too wealthy to be able to do a role,\u201d he told the BBC. \u201cWhat matters is the knowledge, the technical expertise, that you have.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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