LONDON — U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak broke parliament’s standards rules by failing to properly declare his wife’s shareholding in a childcare firm that stood to benefit from government policy, an investigation found.
But the failure was the result of “confusion” over the process and happened inadvertently, according to parliamentary standards commissioner Daniel Greenberg. Sunak has apologized.
“Having considered the information available to me, I have decided that the breach of the Code appears to have been inadvertent and that this inquiry should be concluded through the rectification procedure,” Greenberg said in a report published on Thursday.
Greenberg launched the investigation in April after receiving reports about a potential breach of the rules. At a March hearing of House of Commons liaison committee, Sunak was questioned about a government childcare initiative which would provide incentive payments to people signing up as new child-minders through one of six selected agencies.
Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty, is an investor in Koru Kids, one of the agencies set to benefit from the government’s pilot scheme. But Sunak did not disclose that interest to the committee.
During the investigation, Greenberg found Sunak’s failure to declare his wife’s ties was a breach of rules policing MPs’ conduct. But he also determined that this failure arose from “confusion” between the registration of interests and the declaration of interests.
Greenberg said that the breach would be resolved through “rectification” measures, which usually require MPs to apologize and address the breach.
In a letter sent to the commissioner, Sunak said he apologized “for these inadvertent errors and confirm acceptance of your proposal for rectification.”
Rishi Sunak broke rules by failing to properly declare wife’s shares in a childcare firm
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