The row over whether Rishi Sunak’s wife benefited from the work that went into an ’emergency alert’ test affecting mobile phones on Sunday (April 23) shows one thing: the public do not believe the prime minister’s latest declaration of interests.

Sunak published a new register of MPs’ financial interests last week, in response to anger over his failure to declare that a company part-owned by Akshata Murty will benefit from a new policy to attract people into child-minding.

It doesn’t include significant details, either of his own personal financial investments or his wife’s.

Some of us have drawn the obvious conclusion: that Sunak thinks he and his wife are above such declarations – even though he takes public money, the same as the lowliest Universal Credit claimant.

And UC claimants have to declare their partners’ financial interests:

He didn’t even bother to turn up to an Urgent Question demanding a statement on his entry in the register, on the day the stink over alleged interest in the “emergency alert” broke out across the social media:

Instead, one of his lieutenants piped up to say it’s unreasonable to demand of the prime minister what his government demands of every benefit claimant. This confirms that Sunak thinks he’s better than the rest of us and doesn’t need to give an account of himself.

Apparently Sunak’s entry on the register includes his local rotary club, brass band and community pub but not any business interests owned by him or his wife.

The Byline Times article states:

A spokesperson for Sunak insisted that only such declarations judged to be “relevant” had been added to the list.

This means that while, according to Sunak, the fact the he is a patron of his local brass band is judged to be a “relevant” interest relating to his role as Prime Minister, the fact that his wife is now set to potentially massively financially benefit from a Government policy, is not.

Also not included in the new register are any of the Prime Minister’s own personal financial interests, save from the fact that they are now contained within what Downing Street refer to as a “blind management trust”.

This arrangement is ostensibly designed to prevent the Prime Minister from personally being involved in any future investment decisions that may be affected by his own policies.

However, by placing his existing investments within this “blind” arrangement, the public are prevented from ever knowing which Government policies are directly enriching the Prime Minister and his family.

It is hard to think of a reasonable justification for this continued refusal to be fully open about his own financial interests and those of his wife.

It is clear that Rishi Sunak is doing everything he can to prevent the rest of us from knowing how many commercial pies he and his wife have stuck their grubby fingers into.

It is dishonesty at the top level of government. No wonder he is currently being investigated over whether he has approved a policy that funnels money to a company part-owned by his wife. Other government contracts with companies owned by her should also be investigated.

The dishonesty implied by any investigation is exactly the opposite of what Sunak himself promised when he became prime minister.

By his own standards, he does not deserve to remain in office. There’s a local election next week in England and Northern Ireland; I hope voters there use it to drive that point home.

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