Is Rishi just too rich for politics?

The obvious and perhaps only way out of this mess for Rishi Sunak was for his wife to pay double taxation: that is to say, to be taxed in India for any income on her 0.9 per cent stake in Infosys, the $100 billion company set up by her dad, and then taxed in the UK too. She doesn’t make this point in her statement. To talk about double taxation would sound like complaining – and already the idea of the Sunaks being irritated by questions about their tax affairs is being used against them.

The Chancellor might be privately annoyed, arguing this double tax has never been required of anyone before. Is this to be the new test for the spouse of anyone in public life? But, as I say in my Daily Telegraph column, there has never been a Westminster Wag like Akshata Murthy. A Chancellor whose family wealth exceeds that of the Queen is a scenario that was always going to raise issues.