Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng clashed with Kay Burley after being probed about Rishi Sunak’s wife’s non-domicile status.
The cabinet minister also accused critics of “attacking” Akshata Murty as a way of getting at the chancellor.
It emerged last night that Murty has been a non-dom, which allows her to avoid paying UK taxes on her overseas earnings, for several years.
She has a stake in her billionaire father’s IT services company Infosys, from which she receives a multi-million pound annual dividend.
A spokesperson confirmed said the controversial arrangement was a result of her Indian citizenship.
India does not allow its citizens to hold the citizenship of another country simultaneously,” the spokesperson said.
“So, according to British law, Ms Murty is treated as non-domiciled for UK tax purposes. She has always and will continue to pay UK taxes on all her UK income.”
Asked on Sky News whether Sunak was right to say that politician’s spouses should be off-limits, Kwarteng said: “I agree with him that it’s completely unfair to be bringing someone who is not a politician and essentially attacking them in the way that’s happened. I totally agree with him on that.”
Kwarteng said Murty had been “very clear” about her tax status.
“At the moment she pays tax on UK income and on foreign income she pays the tax outside the UK - that’s what non-dom status means,” Kwarteng - who is today launching said
“I haven’t come here to talk about her tax affairs.”
Pressed further, Kwarteng said: “I know that everything has been fully declared.
“I know that the chancellor has put this all in his declaration of interests and I’m aware that non-dom status has been something that has been in British law for 230 years.”
Shadow business secretary Ed Miliband said it was “legitimate” to ask questions about Murty’s tax arrangements.
He said: “You’ve got to choose to have non-dom status. It’s simply not the case that every citizen of another country who’s resident here is a non-dom - you have to choose to have non-dom status.
“At a time when people are facing incredibly strained finances and Rishi Sunak is raising taxes, he says to pay for public services, we’ve got his immediate family sheltering a large part of their income from UK taxes and there’s a legitimate public question about whether that is the right decision.”
It is understood Sunak declared his wife’s tax status to the Cabinet Office when he first became a minister in 2018.