Are there tough decisions ahead for Rishi Sunak and his wife?

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Thursday 07 April 2022 19:45 EDT
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Assuming that Sunak and Murthy intend to stay married, does the chancellor intend to flee our shores within the next two years?
Assuming that Sunak and Murthy intend to stay married, does the chancellor intend to flee our shores within the next two years? (Reuters)

Rishi Sunak’s wife claims that she has to have non-dom status due to her Indian citizenship. As India apparently does not allow dual nationality, then it follows that she cannot be a UK citizen, with all that implies for her and her children.

I suppose she could always renounce her Indian citizenship, but then she might have to pay more UK tax. Some people do have tough decisions to make in these uncertain times.

G Forward

Stirling

To obtain non-dom status, an individual must intend to relinquish UK residency in the future, and more specifically, anyone who has been resident in the UK for 15 of the previous 20 years cannot claim to be non-dom.

I’m unclear as to when Akshata Murthy first became a UK resident, but she married Rishi Sunak in 2009 and so, as far as I am aware, they have lived in the UK since that date – certainly, Sunak has worked here since then. That means Ms Murthy is declaring that she will leave the UK in 2024 at the latest.

Assuming that Sunak and Murthy intend to stay married, does the chancellor intend to flee our shores within the next two years?

Tim Sidaway

Hertfordshire

According to HMRC, someone who decides to stay in the UK permanently or indefinitely establishes their domicile here.

When are the Sunaks moving on?

Dr John Doherty

Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire

Handouts for the rich

As we read more in the press about the chancellor’s wife “avoiding” the tax the rest of us have to pay, I wonder when we are going to tackle the real issue.

The social group that benefits from the current tax laws are the same group that made the tax laws and the business laws that – while intended initially to encourage investment – now just protect business people from the very market forces they are always banging on about.

Ditto the company laws that saw Sir Philip Green allegedly get away with asset-stripping British Home Stores and using employee pension money for his yacht. It was legal. Everyone felt it was wrong, but the law protected him.

Those same laws mean that those who benefit from government subsidy, post-privatisation of almost everything, are de facto living off massive social handouts – the very sort which are derided when given (in ever-reduced amounts) to poor people.

Amanda Baker

Edinburgh

Brexit is ruining Britain

Jon Stone’s article regarding food production in Britain simply reinforces the view of many thousands of British people that Brexit was, and is, the most devastating calamity.

Leaving the EU is ruining this country. We are now a bit player, one who pays lip service to all other countries. We have lost our “sovereignty”, we don’t control how we trade with other counties and our social and working infrastructure is crumbling.

It has taken centuries to develop this country and we have given it all away. On the whim of a cheap, lying, unethical, no-nothing government, Britain is slowly losing all the hard won gains our forefathers made.

Where are the benefits that were promised by the Brexiteers? I was appalled and disgusted by Jacob Rees-Mogg’s inability to explain the benefits of leaving the EU. It seems to me that we are governed by charlatans, liars and cheats.

In this wonderful country, it is sad to admit that we have food banks to feed thousands of families unable to feed themselves. If, as the government suggests, they are supporting these people, why are the numbers of desperate families turning to food banks rising?

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MPs, especially mine, simply spout the Conservative Party line. Obviously this inept, useless government needs as many distractions as possible in order to reduce proper scrutiny of its abysmal record for the past twelve years.

We have lost, or are losing, large chunks of our heritage; fishing, farming, manufacturing, shipbuilding and engineering, and as a consequence have come to rely on imports and overseas organisations to supply those that we once did.

We should be alarmed that currently farming is being decimated. Farms are being sold, turned into holiday parks or simply allowed to perish. We have already given away our fishing industry. The Conservatives have caused a sea change which is beginning to eat the heart out of Britain.

Keith Poole

Basingstoke

Attacks on the NHS

In their sly attempts to shift the blame for current problems in the NHS, the Conservative government, with the connivance of the right-wing press, have very nearly succeeded in persuading the more gullible elements of the British public that the NHS is to blame for its own problems.

Speaking as someone who owes his life to recent heroic efforts by local hospital doctors and nurses, I simply cannot allow this rotten cabinet to get away with their deception.

The Tories have tried to kill off this wonderful postwar example of Labour endeavour ever since its inception, and they have nearly – but not quite – succeeded!

If this utterly dishonest and incompetent goverment can be defeated, and proper funding restored to its depleted resources, we will be able to rejoice – this time truthfully Mr Johnson! – in a “world leading” health service.

Patrick Moore

Norwich

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