Rishi Sunak makes history today as he becomes the first prime minister to be richer than the monarch.
The new Conservative leader and his wife, businesswoman Akshata Murty, have a combined family fortune of about £730m, while King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort have an estimated personal wealth of half that figure – between £300m and £350m.
The new PM’s wealth has been brought into focus as families across the UK brace for a tough winter, with soaring inflation sparked by rising food prices and crippling energy bills.
As ordinary households grapple with the cost of living crisis, how rich is the man promising to lead us through it?
Mr Sunak’s wealth is no secret. Earlier this year, he became the first frontbench politician to be included in the Sunday Times rich list.
The former hedge fund manager and his wife Akshata Murty earned 222nd place on the annual ranking of UK plutocrats with their combined fortune of £730m.
As well as being the UK’s richest prime minister ever, the former chancellor is also making history as the nation’s first prime minister of colour and Hindu. Aged 42, he is also the youngest person to take the office since 1812.
While running for the first Tory leadership contest against Liz Truss, Mr Sunak’s wealth invited criticism from his opponents.
A video clip emerged of a young Mr Sunak in 2001 saying he had “no working-class friends”, and he was spotted wearing £3,500 Savile Row suits and tailored shits costing £160 each.
The couple’s property portfolio includes a £2m Georgian manor house in his North Yorkshire constituency of Richmond, with a recently completed £250,000 swimming pool and gym complex.
They also have a mews house in Kensington (occupied by Ms Murty and the couple’s two daughters after the row over her previous non-domiciled tax status) and a £5.5m beach penthouse in Santa Monica.
Mr Sunak has an undeniably impressive CV, taking a well-trodden path among MPs by attending £43,000-a-year Winchester College before reading PPE at Oxford University.
He went on to win a Fulbright scholarship to Stanford University in California where he met his wife on the same MBA course.
Ms Murty is the daughter of tycoon N R Narayana Murthy, the founder of Bangalore-based IT and software giant Infosys. She owns 0.91 per cent of the company, worth about £720m.
It was revealed in April that the Indian-born heiress held non-domiciled tax status, leading to complaints that she was avoiding paying taxes to the British Exchequer, which was being run by her husband.
Non-dom status available to UK residents who have a permanent home outside the UK, meaning they may not have to pay UK tax on foreign income.
While this is legal, Ms Murty eventually surrendered her “non-dom” status to pay taxes on all her income, saying: “My decision to pay UK tax on all my worldwide income will not change the fact that India remains the country of my birth, citizenship, parents’ home and place of domicile. But I love the UK too.”
Mr Sunak’s own background is more modest, with his parents – of Indian Punjabi descent – migrating to the UK from East Africa in the 60s. His father, Kenya-born Yashvir, worked as an NHS GP. His mother Usha who was born in what is now Tanzania, runs Southampton’s Bassett pharmacy.