Revealed: Sunak wife’s family firm in line for millions in new public contracts

Indian-HQ'ed IT firm Infosys has been listed as a supplier on a series of major public contracts that have a combined value of more than £750 million.

An IT firm part-owned by Rishi Sunak’s wife is in line for tens of millions of pounds in government contracts, this newsletter can reveal.

Infosys has been listed as a supplier on a series of major public contracts that have a combined value of more than £750 million.

These ‘framework agreements’ - which have not been reported before - are by some distance the largest public contracts that Infosys has been involved with in the UK.

Infosys was founded by Sunak’s father-in-law, Indian IT billionaire NR Narayana Murty. It has over 300,000 employees around the world. 

Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty owns around 39m shares in Infosys, a 0.94% stake worth around £610m based on the firm’s current valuation. Murty received £13.5m in dividends from Infosys last year. 

Infosys is one of 62 suppliers on a £562.5m contract for IT services published by the Financial Conduct Authority in October, according to the government’s Contracts Finder website. 

The firm is also one of 25 suppliers on a £250m contract published by NHS Shared Business Services last month for “intelligent automation”.

These framework agreements let public bodies directly award contracts without further tendering. No awards have yet been made, but Infosys may be in line for millions in taxpayers’ money.

Infosys has received at least £66m in public contracts since 2015, including more than £47m awarded since Sunak became Chancellor in February 2020. 

Concerns about the award of public contracts to Infosys have been raised previously. 

In 2022, Labour’s shadow deputy prime minister Angela Rayner said Sunak’s “close family are personally benefiting from lucrative public contracts.”

Infosys has also had meetings with numerous government ministers. Last April, the IT firm had a meeting with trade minister - and longtime Tory donor - Lord Dominic Johnson “to discuss operations in the UK”.

I sent a Freedom of Information request asking for minutes and notes from that meeting. It was rejected outright. 

The department for business and trade said that there was “a public interest in the disclosure of information” - but that was trumped by the need to give companies confidence that they “can share sensitive material with government”.

Shortly after that meeting, Somerset Capital Management LLP, the investment firm set up by Lord Johnson and Jacob Rees Mogg, increased its stake in Infosys by around £18m, to £105m, according to a report in the Sunday Mirror.

The department for business said that Lord Johnson resigned from Somerset Capital before becoming a minister and “has had no contact with the business since.” 

Sunak’s wife’s wealth has often been a source of controversy for the PM since it was revealed in 2022 that she was a ‘non-dom’. Akshata Murty subsequently said that she was giving up her non-dom status and pledged to pay UK tax on her worldwide income. 

Sunak’s own wealth - and tax affairs - have also been in the spotlight. The prime minister is reported to be the richest ever occupant of Number 10.

Last year, under huge pressure, Sunak published a version of his tax returns that showed that he had made nearly £5m in the previous three years, thanks mainly to gains from his US investment fund. 

The prime minister paid an effective tax rate of around 22% - far lower than many people earning much less pay in income tax.

Earlier this month, Akshata Murty donated her shares in childcare company Koru Kids to charity following concerns about whether she stood to benefit from government policies.

Sunak had previously been reprimanded by parliament’s standards watchdog for failing to properly declare his wife’s holding in Koru Kids. The watchdog said Sunak had breached parliament’s code of conduct but did so inadvertently. 

Remarkably, the independent adviser on ministers’ interests had previously ruled that Sunak does not have to declare his wife’s stake in Infosys on parliamentary registers. 

A Cabinet Office spokesperson stressed that Sunak had made declarations in line with the ethics advisor’s guidance and that neither the prime minister nor his ministers were involved in Infosys’s contracts.

"Ministers do not take part in the evaluation or selection of winning bidders,” the spokesperson said.

An FCA spokesperson said: “We are yet to award any contracts under our latest Digital Services Framework Agreement.

“Under this agreement, 62 pre-selected suppliers are able to bid to provide specific contracts. We use a number of companies for IT support and we tender publicly, as do any other public bodies.”

NHS Shared Business Services said: “There is no specific amount awarded to any supplier on the framework.” 

Infosys was approached for comment.