A TORY minister told company executives at Infosys – a firm owned by Rishi Sunak’s wife’s family – he would “do what he could” to help grow its UK business, it has been revealed.
The discovery, from a freedom of information request, lumps further scrutiny on the Prime Minister and his links to the IT firm.
Tory trade minister Dominic Johnson reportedly held a meeting at Infosys’s offices in Bengaluru in India on April 27 last year, with a readout saying he “made clear that he was keen to see a bigger Infosys presence in the UK and would be happy to do what he could to facilitate that”.
READ MORE: Rishi Sunak’s family firm Infosys set for millions of government money
The Sunday Mirror reported that a brief for the meeting added that it “would be good to reassure them on the prospects for the UK economy and remind them of the support that we can provide through DBT [Department for Business and Trade]”.
“We value the relationship with Infosys and will continue to engage at a ministerial level when requested of us,” a list of speaking points went on.
Labour suggested Infosys had effectively been granted “VIP access”, reminiscent of the VIP lane through which billions of funding was given to PPE firms owned by contacts of Tory ministers during the corona virus pandemic.
Jonathan Ashworth told the Sunday Mirror: “After the Tories handed billions in taxpayers’ cash to cronies for duff PPE, the public will wonder why an outfit so personally close to Rishi Sunak appears to have been granted this VIP access. There are serious questions to answer.”
We previously revealed that Infosys – in which Akshata Murty (above) reportedly has shares worth around £610 million – has been put on an “approved list” of suppliers in line for £750m of UK public sector contracts.
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