Inside Politics: Energy strategy revealed & Sunak’s wife avoids tax through non-dom status

Nuclear power at the heart of delayed energy security plan as sources claim chancellor’s wife Akshata Murthy could have saved millions with tax status, writes Matt Mathers

(PA)

This week has been another bad one for Rishi Sunak. Two polls out in the past few days show the chancellor’s popularity in freefall – both among the public and the Tory membership – in the aftermath of his widely criticised spring statement, which critics say did not do enough to help Britons through the cost of living crisis. There are more difficult questions for the Richmond MP this morning after the Independent exclusively revealed that his millionaire wife has claimed non-domicile status in order to save on her tax bill while he was chancellor.

Inside the bubble

Parliament is in recess.

Coming up:

– Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng on BBC Radio 4 Today at 8.10am

– Shadow climate change secretary Ed Miliband on LBC at 8.20am

Daily Briefing

• GOING NUCLEAR: The government’s delayed energy security strategy is published today and is, as expected, focused on plans for a revival of nuclear power and a drive to exploit hydrogen. Amid cabinet splits and back bench opposition, the plan does not, however, end a block on onshore wind turbines – one of the cheapest sources of energy, the ramping up of which campaigners say is vital to ensuring the UK meets its net zero targets. Critics of the strategy say it does nothing to help families struggling with sky-high energy prices now. Ed Miliband, Labour’s shadow climate change secretary, said: “The government’s energy relaunch is in disarray. Boris Johnson has completely caved to his own backbenchers and now, ludicrously, his own energy strategy has failed on the sprint we needed on onshore wind and solar, the cheapest, cleanest forms of homegrown power. This relaunch will do nothing for the millions of families now facing an energy bills crisis.”

• SCOOP: Sunak faces another difficult day following yet more revelations about his family’s wealth. Akshata Murthy, whose family business is estimated to be worth around £3.5bn, has continued to use the valuable non-domicile tax status even after Sunak was put in charge of setting taxes for the country in February 2020, according to two people familiar with her financial arrangements. Sources claim she could have saved millions of pounds in tax on foreign earnings over several years. The decision to pay less tax through non-dom status is optional. So-called “non-dom” status is entirely lawful and can save an individual from paying UK tax on income from dividends from foreign investments, rental payments on property overseas or bank interest, and those using the status can also avoid UK inheritance tax. The Treasury did not comment and a spokesperson for Murthy claimed she had to use non-dom status because of her Indian citizenship. Tulip Siddiq, Labour’s shadow economic secretary to the Treasury, called for Sunak to “urgently explain how much he and his family have saved on their own tax bill” at the same time as raising taxes for millions of people during the cost of living crisis.

• UKRAINE LATEST: Putin’s troops have completely withdrawn from Kyiv and Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, the Pentagon said overnight as Russia continues to turn its attention to the Donbas region, with towns there coming under heavy bombardment. The UK and the US announced a fresh wave of sanctions against the Kremlin for its actions in Bucha, and Washington also sanctioned the Russian president’s daughters. The EU is still discussing its latest package of penalties, which is due to be confirmed later today. We’ll have all the latest updates on our liveblog.

• FOOD INSECURITY: Black households in the UK are now up to four times more likely to suffer from food insecurity than the national average, new analysis shows. Figures from the Department for Work and Pensions family resources survey show that in the 2020-21 financial year, some 21 per cent of households headed by someone from a Black African, Black Caribbean or Black British background didn’t have enough food to stay healthy and active. This figure is three times more than the UK average of 7 per cent. The proportion of Black households with very low food security status stood at 12 per cent – four times the national average of 3 per cent. Households with this status would “anticipate substantive disruption to their food intake”. This means that 280,000 Black people across the UK struggled to get enough to eat at the height of the pandemic, the Labour Party has calculated.

• TWITTER ROW: Former MP George Galloway has threatened to sue Twitter after his account was labelled “Russia state-affiliated media”. The politician and broadcaster denied working for Russian media and warned the social media giant that he would take legal action if the designation – which appeared in his bio and on his posts – was not removed. The 67-year-old and his wife Gayatri Galloway have presented a show called “Sputnik: Orbiting the world with George Galloway” on the Kremlin-linked RT network, formerly known as Russia Today, since 2013. He wrote: “It’s Kafkaesque really. When I did present on Russian state media I had no Twitter designation. Now that I don’t can’t and would be committing a crime if I did I have been given the designation.” Twitter – access to which has been blocked in Russia, amid a crackdown on independent sources of information about the war in Ukraine – said it would take action against any nation which “restricts access to the open internet while they’re engaged in armed conflict”.

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.

On the record

“Akshata Murty is a citizen of India, the country of her birth and parent’s home. India does not allow its citizens to hold the citizenship of another country simultaneously. So, according to British law, Ms Murty is treated as non-domiciled for UK tax purposes. She has always and will continue to pay UK taxes on all her UK income.”

Spokesperson for Akshata Murty.

From the Twitterati

“Today’s tax hike suggests the Brexit bus promise (£350m/week for the NHS) is even more of a lie now than it was in 2016.”

i chief politics commentator Paul Waugh on yesterday’s NI rise.

Essential reading

• John Rentoul, The Independent: The latest tax rise marks the suspension of Rishi Sunak’s leadership campaign
• Harriet Williamson, The Independent: Hands off Channel 4 – it helped me embrace my sexuality
• Andrew Marr, The New Statesman: Labour could face an election next spring. Keir Starmer needs a big idea, and fast
• Andrew Exum, The Atlantic: The Russian military has descended into inhumanity

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