Sleaze watchdog probes Sunak’s interests

Bang goes Rishi Sunak’s big maths speech. Fresh from delivering a paean to the joys of numeracy, the Prime Minister is now facing an investigation by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner into his outside interests. The probe is understood to concern Sunak’s wife’s shareholding in a business that runs Koru Kids – one of the childcare providers which stands to get taxpayer funding from Jeremy Hunt’s Budget scheme.

The issue was raised by Labour’s Cat McKinnell last month at the Prime Minister’s Liaison Committee grilling and serves as a reminder  that Sunak’s extensive family wealth has the potential to be a political liability for him. A No. 10 spokesman told Mr S: ‘We are happy to assist the Commissioner to clarify how this has been transparently declared as a ministerial interest.’ Sunak is one of six MPs now under investigation, alongside two other Tories and, er, Matt Hancock, Scott Benton and Chris Pincher who were all elected as Tories.