63% of voters don’t trust Chancellor Rishi Sunak to tell the truth, according to exclusive polling we undertook for Byline Times.
Notably, it seems as though Sunak’s popularity declines further away from the capital. Whereas 55% of those surveyed in London said they don’t trust the Chancellor, this figure rose to 56% in the midlands, 67% in the north of England, 71% in Wales, 70% in Scotland and 70% in Northern Ireland.
Of those who voted Conservative at the last general election, 44% of those asked said they don’t trust Sunak to tell the truth, compared to 65% of 2019 Labour voters. The Chancellor also appears to be unpopular among both Leave and Remain voters, with 58% and 65% distrusting Sunak respectively.
The Chancellor has found himself in hot water in recent weeks, with a series of scandals emerging about his wife, Akshata Murthy.
It emerged that Murthy held some £700 million in shares in an Indian company continuing to operate in Russia despite Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine – a story compounded by Byline Times’ revelation that Murthy had invested in a firm linked to a Russian billionaire with ties to a Kremlin insider.
In the past few days, it has been revealed that Murthy holds ‘non-dom’ status – allowing her to avoid tax on her foreign earnings – while both Sunak and Murthy held US green cards and were declared ‘permanent US residents’ for tax purposes for a year while Sunak served as Chancellor.
None of these facts has been noted in Sunak’s register of interests, despite the Ministerial Code stating that “ministers must provide their Permanent Secretary with a full list in writing of all interests which might be thought to give rise to a conflict. The list should also cover interests of the minister’s spouse or partner and close family which might be thought to give rise to a conflict”.
The online poll was conducted for Byline Times by Omnisis on 8th April 2022.
Image Credit: HM Treasury and The Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP, OGL 3 <http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3>, via Wikimedia Commons