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Sunak didn’t declare wife’s child-minding interest

A parliamentary watchdog has found that British Prime Minister did not declare his wife’s interest in a child-minding agency while discussing a planned incentive scheme for the sector at a committee meeting.

Rishi Sunak (pictured) will not face any further action, however, after apologising.

Daniel Greenberg (Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards) was investigating a complaint made after Rishi Sunak gave evidence to a committee of MPs in March on a British Government plan to encourage people to become child-minders.

Relevant interest

Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty, held shares in one of six agencies selected by the Government to provide its new members with an enhanced financial incentive.

Greenberg said that the shareholding was a relevant interest that should have been declared to the committee under the 2023 Code of Conduct.

Sunak told the commissioner that he had declared the holding on a ministerial register that is not made public, but had not thought that it met the test of relevance to require publication.

Confusion

Greenberg acknowledged that Sunak may not have been aware of his wife’s shareholding at the time of the committee meeting, but had a duty to correct the record.

“However, Mr Sunak was aware of the interest when he subsequently wrote to the Chair of the Liaison Committee, Sir Bernard Jenkin MP, on 4 April 2023, and he failed to declare the interest at that stage or correct the record,” Greenberg stated.

The commissioner added, however, that he was satisfied that Sunak had confused the issue of registration with the concept of ‘declaration of interest’ under the code.

“I formed the view that the failure to declare arose out of this confusion, and was accordingly inadvertent on the part of Mr Sunak,” Greenberg concluded.