Rishi Sunak Is Just the Tip of the Tories’ Leadership Crisis
A hard-won reputation for rectitude falls apart in a matter of weeks. The bigger question is what it means for the future of the Conservative Party in the U.K.
A climate protester takes on the chancellor’s image in London on April 11.
Photographer: Hollie Adams/Getty Images EuropeA few weeks ago, Rishi Sunak was the heir apparent to a faltering prime minister: a safe pair of hands in a bungle-prone cabinet and a clean slate in a scandal-stained party. Today, he is clinging by his fingertips to his job as chancellor of the exchequer. The Sunday Times claims that he seriously considered resigning last week. There are suggestions that Prime Minister Boris Johnson will force him to swap jobs with the foreign secretary, Liz Truss.
Sunak has been shaken by two bombshell revelations in rapid succession. The first was that his wife, Akshata Murthy, has “non-dom” status — meaning that she does not have to pay U.K. tax on income she earns abroad despite not only living in Britain, but at Number 11 Downing Street. Murthy owns 700 million pounds ($912 million) worth of shares in Infosys Ltd, a giant IT company co-founded by her father, from which she received 11.7 million pounds in dividend income last year.