LONDON — The U.K. parliament’s standards watchdog has launched an investigation into whether Rishi Sunak broke the code of conduct for MPs by failing to declare a relevant interest.
The standards commissioner’s investigation does not detail the specific interest under investigation, but the prime minister has recently faced questions over his wife Akshata Murty’s stake in childcare business Koru Kids following a £4bn boost for the sector in last month’s Budget.
Sunak wrote to the House of Commons liaison committee earlier this month saying his interest in the firm had been declared in the yet-to-be-published list of ministerial interests. It is not currently listed in the separate register of interests filled out by each MP.
In the letter, written on 4 April, Sunak noted “media interest” in his wife’s “minority stake” in the firm, adding: “I would like to clarify for the parliamentary record that this interest has rightly been declared to the Cabinet Office.”
He added: “The latest list of ministerial interests will be published shortly by the independent adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus.”
Responding to news of the probe, a No. 10 spokesperson said: “We are happy to assist the commissioner to clarify how this has been transparently declared as a ministerial interest.”
Koru Kids is expected to benefit from new incentive payments of £600 for childminders joining the profession, a sum which doubles if they have signed up through an agency.
The firm, which is one of six agencies listed on the government’s website, praised the “great” new incentive on their own site, adding childminders would receive double if they “come through an agency like Koru Kids who offer community, training and ongoing support.”
News of the probe was seized on by Labour, with Deputy Leader Angela Rayner saying of the register of ministers’ interests: “If Rishi Sunak has got nothing to hide, he should commit to publishing the register before May’s elections so the public can see for themselves.”
Labour’s Keir Starmer has faced his own brush with the MPs’ code of conduct.
Last summer the standards commissioner found that the opposition leader failed to declare eight interests on time. The watchdog concluded that the breaches were “minor and/or inadvertent, and that there was no deliberate attempt to mislead.”
