Sunaks' wealth rises to £651m in latest Sunday Times Rich List

The personal wealth of Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty rose by £122m last year, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.

The couple's fortune was estimated at £651m in the latest list, up from £529m in 2023.

This was mainly due to Ms Murty's shares in Infosys, the Indian IT giant co-founded by her father.

It means they are richer than the King, according to the annual list of the UK's most wealthy people.

Charles III was ranked higher than the Sunak family last year, but his personal fortune is estimated to have grown more modestly over the past year, up £10m to £610m.

The Sunaks were ranked higher than the late Queen in 2022 - with Elizabeth II's personal fortune that year evaluated at £370m.

However, estimating the personal fortunes of monarchs is tricky, while the wider wealth of the monarchy - which includes various estates and palaces - has been estimated at dozens of billions of pounds.

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Mr Sunak became the first front-line politician to feature on the Sunday Times' annual wealth list in its 35-year history when he appeared on it as chancellor in the 2022 edition.

At that point, the family's wealth was estimated at £730m.

Mr Sunak worked as a hedge fund manager before entering politics and is personally wealthy, listing £2.2m in income, earnings, and capital gains last year in his latest tax summary.

But he owes his place at the top table of wealthy Britons mainly to his wife's Infosys shareholding, estimated to be worth £590m last year.

Downing Street declined to comment on Mr Sunak's latest appearance in the rich list, saying it was a "private family matter".

But the PM's official spokesman added: "When he's been asked this question before he's responded and asked that people judge him by his actions, including to support livelihoods during the pandemic though the furlough scheme as an example.

"That's his focus and his priority and he should be judged on that."

Correction 28 May: In an earlier version of this story we reported that the Swire family were among the top 10 richest families and individuals in the UK, according to The Sunday Times. The Sunday Times has since updated its 2024 rich list to move the Swire family down from sixth to 15th place, so they are no longer in the top 10. We have updated our story to reflect this.