Rishi Sunak is leading the race to become Britain's next prime minister to replace Boris Johnson after the second round of voting among the Conservative Party MPs ended on Thursday, 14 July.
Indian-origin Attorney General Suella Braverman was eliminated from the race for failing to get the minimum 30 votes required.
While Sunak seems to be doing pretty well at the moment, he does not fare too well head-to-head with Penny Mordaunt, according to a new poll conducted within the Conservative Party members taken immediately after the announcement of the final candidates earlier this week.
However, even as the Indian-origin MP still continues to be a top contender for the PM post, he is no stranger to controversy. Here are some of the things that he'd have not liked to be in the news for.
To Invest or To Disinvest in Russia?
"Practise what you preach," the old saying goes. Rishi Sunak might not be someone who abides by that.
On one hand, due to the invasion of Ukraine, he called on British firms to stop investing in Russia, and praised the decisions of energy companies like BP and Shell to pull out, along with the investment firms Aviva, M&G and Vanguard, for doing the same.
"I am urging firms to think very carefully about their investments in Russia and how they may aid the Putin regime – and I am also clear that there is no case for new investment in Russia. We must collectively go further in our mission to inflict maximum economic pain – and to stop further bloodshed," he had said in March earlier this year.
On the other hand, his wife, Akshata Murthy, daughter of Infosys founded Narayana Murthy, has been accused of collecting "bloody money" in dividends from the company that has refused to exit Russia after the attack on Ukraine.
A spokesperson for Sunak has argued that neither Murthy nor any family members "have any involvement in the operational decisions of the company." It, nevertheless, goes against the very spirit of Sunak's preaching when it comes to inflicting "maximum economic pain" on Putin's regime, especially at a time when other big firms like McKinsey, Accenture, and KPMG have exited Russia because of the war.
Speaking of Akshata Murthy, she reportedly pays £30,000 a year to maintain her non-domicile status, which allows her to avoid paying up to £20 million in tax to the British government.
The revelation created a storm for the former Chancellor, given that he recently raised the tax amount for millions of British people.
The TCI Controversy
Rishi Sunak worked with hedge funds back in London, and was a partner at The Children's Investment Fund (TCI), by which he reportedly made millions of pounds from a campaign that contributed to the 2008 financial crisis.
TCI launched a campaign against the Dutch bank ABN Amro that led to its acquisition by a consortium made up of Fortis Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), and Banco Santander. "His role in TCI between 2006-2009 made him a millionaire in his mid-twenties," The Times reported.
"Rishi Sunak was part of a small team of hedge fund bosses who shared nearly £100m after an audacious stock market bet that lit the touchpaper on the 2008 financial crisis," the introduction to the report read.
Sunak Doesn't Have 'Working Class Friends'
"I have friends who are aristocrats, I have friends who are upper-class, I have friends who are, you know, working-class," a 21-year-old Sunak, can be heard saying in a 20019 BBC documentary in 2001.
Then, he goes on to correct himself straightaway.
"Well, not working-class," he clarifies.
The video, shared by Kathryn Franklin from Huddersfield in the United Kingsom, has gathered over three million views.
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