As many in the UK struggle, is Rishi Sunak’s wealth a liability or asset?
- Britain’s new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his family will be the richest ever occupants of Number 10 Downing Street
- Sunak’s wealth is likely to be a target for critics as the country struggles with an economic crisis and he mulls ‘difficult decisions’
History was made when Britain’s Conservative MPs installed Rishi Sunak as prime minister. A devout Hindu of Indian heritage, he is the UK’s first leader of colour. At 42, he is the country’s youngest premier in more than 200 years.
He will also be the richest person to live in the flat above 10 Downing Street.
But ultra-rich Sunak, the former Chancellor of Exchequer, will need to overcome perceptions he is out of touch with struggling Britons as he steers the country through its worst economic crisis in decades.
Britain-born Sunak is a former hedge fund manager and extremely wealthy in his own right. His wife Akshata Murty is the daughter of an Indian technology billionaire. The couple have an estimated combined wealth of £730 million (US$826 million).
That exceeds the wealth of Edward Stanley, the 14th Earl of Derby, who served as prime minister three times (1866-1868, 1858-1859, 1866). His personal fortune exceeded £444 million in today’s value, according to Guinness World Records.
The Sunaks, whose portfolio of properties includes a house in London’s Kensington, a mansion in the north of England and a penthouse in California, are nearly twice as rich as King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla.
In a poll released this week, Savanta ComRes asked voters to describe Sunak in one word. The results, released in a word-cloud, showed one word was the most common response: “Rich”.
