George Eustice struggled to explain if he understood the public reaction to the row over Rishi Sunak’s finances in a tense interview on Sky News.
The chancellor has been under fire after his wife Akshata Murty was found to be using the legal loophole of a non-dom status, which meant she did not have to pay UK tax on her overseas income.
This news went public last week, just as the cost of living crisis started to bite.
While Murty has since promised to start paying this tax, the row – along with the revelation that Sunak held onto a US green card until October 2021 – has completely shaken the chancellor’s reputation.
Sunak has now called for an independent investigation into his own finances in a bid to clear his name.
On Monday, presenter Kay Burley asked environment secretary Eustice: “Do you understand why the British people are angry that the man who has increased tax for them, his wife was not paying tax on overseas income to the extent of millions of pounds?
“Do you understand why there is anger among the British people on that?”
“I think people should judge the chancellor,” Eustice replied.
Burley pushed: “Why don’t you just say yes? It’s obvious.
“Are you so out of touch as a government that you don’t understand people are struggling to feed their kids while the man who is enforcing these laws on them, these taxes on them, he’s rolling in it?”
Eustice refused to be drawn, and just said: “The man who is chancellor at the moment has paid all of his taxes and paid taxes on his income, and paid all of that in the UK – he’s been clear on that.”
The row over Sunak’s green card has also raised questions about just how committed he is to the UK, considering he was deciding on British taxes when he officially a resident of another country. This meant he was paying tax to the US on his worldwide earnings.
Eustice tried to explain: “Well, he worked in the US for many years – he was based on there, lived on there, worked out there.
“And yes there was a hangover, if you like, from that period where he retained that green card.
“But obviously he got rid of that a couple of years ago.”
“No he didn’t he got rid of it in October,” Burley pointed out – more than a year after Sunak became chancellor.
The environment secretary replied: “Well, he’s got rid of the green card now.”
Eustice battled with similar questions during a subsequent interview with BBC Breakfast, when presenter Jon Kay asked: “Does this challenge his [Sunak’s] credibility? He’s the one putting up taxes, he’s the one telling us about the sacrifices we will have to make.”
Eustice just maintained that all ministers declare all the interests to the civil service, and that “the chancellor has made it clear that he doesn’t think he’s done anything wrong at all”.
Eustice’s response to the ongoing row over Sunak was more reticent than that of his colleague’s, police and crime minister Kit Malthouse, who said on Sunday he understood it had “offended a sense of fair play”.