Rishi Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty, have seen their personal fortune increase by £120 million ahead of the upcoming general election, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List. Their wealth now stands at an estimated £651 million, up from £529 million in 2023, highlighting Sunak’s substantial affluence at a time when many Britons are grappling with the cost of living.
Stakes of Akshata Murty in Infosys, the $70bn (£55.3bn) Indian IT firm co-founded by her billionaire father, drove last year’s rise in the couple’s fortune. Her shares grew in value by £108.8m to nearly £590m for the year. Their wealth remains below its 2022 level, which was estimated at about £730 million. On Thursday Sunak, whose government is trailing in in the polls behind Labour, insisted he would remain an MP if the Conservatives lose the next election.
Speaking on ITV’s Loose Women, he said: “Yes of course I’m staying, I love being an MP, I love my constituents, I love my home in North Yorkshire, it’s wonderful – and I love being able to get back there.” His family own an apartment in Santa Monica, California. Sunak spent much of his 20s and early 30s on the US west coast and met Murty at Stanford business school. Sunak’s interest in technology and AI has led to suggestions he could get a job in Silicon Valley.
King Charles’s wealth
The rich list shows that King Charles’s wealth also grew in the year, from £600m to £610m. The list records that the number of British billionaires tumbled again, continuing a theme seen in 2023. The number of billionaires reached a peak of 177 in 2022 before dropping to 171 last year and falling again to 165 this year, driven by the private wealth of some contracting amid high borrowing rates, and others leaving the country.
Robert Watts, the compiler of the list, said: “This year’s Sunday Times rich list suggests that Britain’s billionaire boom has, indeed, come to an end. Consequently, many of our homegrown entrepreneurs have seen their fortunes fall, and furthermore, some of the global super-rich who came here are moving away. Additionally, thousands of British livelihoods rely on the super-rich to some extent. Therefore, we’ll have to wait and see whether we have now reached peak billionaire, and ultimately, what that means for our economy.”
