How much is Rishi Sunak worth – is the Prime Minister richer than King Charles III?

Rishi Sunak is hoping to be re-elected as the UK Prime Minister at the next general election, which has been confirmed for 4 July.

At present, he is the UK's richest politician - and is possibly the richest Prime Minister ever. He recently appeared in the Sunday Times Rich List 2024 alongside his wife Akshata Murty.

The Sunaks' combined net worth of £651 million, up from £529m last year, puts the PM in touching distance of some of the richest people in the world. But where does all of this wealth come from - and is he richer than King Charles III? We've run the numbers.

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How much is Rishi Sunak worth and how did he make his money?

Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty are worth around £651m, with most of it coming from Murty’s holdings in her father's massive IT company, Infosys.

Akshata Murty is the daughter of the Indian billionaire N. R. Narayana Murthy (she spells her last name differently from her father) who founded Infosys in 1981. The tech founder has been called the Steve Jobs of India and today the group has a market value of around $70bn (or £55.3bn).

Murty owns 0.93% of the company, worth nearly £590m. In the company’s latest annual report, Murty received about £13m in dividends and is set to receive another £10.5m this year.

On top of this investment, Murty and Sunak both own a sprawling property portfolio. They have homes in London and California as well as a Georgian mansion in Sunak’s Yorkshire constituency that has 12 acres of land. The value of the couple’s property has been pegged at £16m.

Then there’s Murty’s stake in Catamaran Ventures UK. This is the British arm of her father’s venture capital and private equity firm. It manages around $1bn in assets across India. 

According to an investigation by The Guardian, Akshata Murty also has a stake in International Market Management, a company that owns 100% of Mauritius-based Immassociates Mauritius. Immassociates Mauritius holds investments in fast-food restaurants and franchises across India.

Murty’s earnings are much higher than what Sunak brings to the Downing Street table. In February 2024, Sunak released his financial statements which showed that he made £2.2m in 2022-23, of which only 6.5% was his MP and prime ministerial wages. Other earnings include roughly £1.8m through capital gains and around £300k from interest and dividends. He paid £508,308 in tax.

His wife's tax affairs have not been quite so transparent. Two years ago, it was revealed by The Independent that she held non-dom status. It meant she avoided paying UK tax on at least some of her Infosys dividends - possibly as much as £20m.

However, she announced she would stop using the special status soon after the allegations emerged. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has since announced non-domicile status will be phased out.

Is Rishi Sunak richer than King Charles III?

While we may have a rough idea of how much is Rishi Sunak worth, trying to figure out how much King Charles is worth is even more challenging.

King Charles has outstripped the late Queen Elizabeth II in wealth, bringing his net worth to £610m. This boost has been aided by his royal property holdings.

But how much he's really worth continues to be a hotly debated topic, with some insisting that he may be a billionaire because the monarch technically owns estates like the £1.1bn Duchy of Lancaster and the £15.8bn Crown Estate. However, according to Robert Watts from The Times, these assets cannot count as his own because they come with his job and are not owned personally by Charles III.

So what counts when calculating the King’s personal wealth? Some of Charles’s most valuable assets are his Sandringham and Balmoral estates, which are valued at roughly £250m and £210m each.

And what about the late Queen’s assets? Queen Elizabeth II’s personal will is not going to be made public until 2112, so most of us will be dead by the time it’s unveiled. Still, if we assume Charles is inheriting the late queen’s direct wealth, he could be worth as much as £400m according to David McClure, author of The Queen’s True Worth. This includes her personal stamp collection of £100m.

What we do know is that the Queen passed on a portfolio worth about £120m and that her racehorse breeding is worth at least £27m.

But the ruling monarch has access to assets held in trust for the sovereign, or “in right of the Crown”, which are run by the government of the day. These include seven royal palaces (including Buckingham Palace) and 11 castles worth a total of £22bn according to Forbes. Then there are the Crown Jewels (worth around £3.5bn) and the Crown’s art collection (another £7.5bn). In comparison, Sunak’s portfolio starts to look rather small.

So, while Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty’s net worth is parked at £651m, King Charles’s direct net worth is around £610m, with his assets as monarch totalling in the region of £49bn. Even Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty can’t compete with that kind of wealth.