Rishi Sunak has denied his family is profiting from Vladimir Putin’s regime in an awkward interview about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The chancellor was asked about reports of “family links” to Russia, which has been hit by sanctions over the war it is waging in eastern Europe.
Mr Sunak called these sanctions “of unprecedented scale and scope” in the House of Commons on Wednesday. He previously told businesses to “think carefully” about making any investments that would benefit Mr Putin’s regime, as UK firms scrambled to cut ties with Russia.
The chancellor was quizzed on Thursday about his wife’s stake in Infosys – a Indian IT company founded by her billionaire entrepreneur father which has operations in Moscow and reported links to a large Russian bank.
Sky News presenter Jayne Secker asked him: “Are you giving advice to others that you are not following in your own home?”
Mr Sunak replied: “I’m an elected politician and I’m here to talk to you about what I’m responsible for. My wife is not.”
It has been reported the UK chancellor’s wife has a stake in the company worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
But Mr Sunak brushed off suggestions his family could potentially be “benefitting from Putin’s regime”.
“I don’t think that is the case. As I said, the operations of all companies are up to them,” the chancellor said.
“We have put in place significant sanctions and all the companies that we are responsible for are following those – as they rightly should – sending a very strong message to Putin’s aggression.”
Asked whether Infosys – which has four offices in the UK – was sending such a message, Mr Sunak said: “I have absolutely no idea because I have nothing to do with that company.”
