Former British Prime Minister and current Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak
Credit: Reuters photo
London: Britain's former prime minister Rishi Sunak has been cleared by a UK government watchdog to take on part-time paid advisory roles with tech giant Microsoft and AI firm Anthropic, both based in the US.
Sunak, who is now a backbench Conservative Party MP for Richmond and Northallerton, had approached the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments under the government's "Business Appointment Rules for Former Ministers".
The committee, which published its decision on Thursday, said Sunak should not draw on any “privileged information” available to him from his time in the prime ministerial office. He is also constrained from lobbying the government on behalf of either of the firms for at least two years.
"As the former prime minister, you will have been privy to a range of high-level sensitive information on more or less all government-related matters. Further, during your time in office, you had extensive industry engagement with companies and organisations within the AI and tech sector,” reads the committee's advice.
"The committee recognised the risks associated with your access to information are somewhat limited due to the passage of time and political and economic changes. It also considered it likely you will be seen to have privileged insight from your dealings with the tech and AI sector as prime minister, albeit some months ago. Consequently, a condition has been imposed to limit your role and reduce the scope for risks under government rules,” it stated.
Sunak told the watchdog that all proceeds from his new roles will be donated to The Richmond Project, an education charity he founded with his wife, Akshata Murty, to tackle numeracy issues among children in the UK.
“I have long believed that technology will transform our world and play a key part in determining our future,” said Sunak.
“We stand on the edge of a technological revolution whose impacts will be as profound as those of the industrial revolution: and felt more quickly. In my role as a senior adviser, I want to help these companies ensure that this shift delivers the improvements in all of our lives that it can,” he said.
The British Indian politician's latest roles follow a re-entry into the banking world as Senior Adviser at the Goldman Sachs Group, announced in July. He previously worked at Goldman Sachs as a summer intern in Investment Banking in 2000 and later as an analyst between 2001 and 2004.
His career in politics started when he was elected Tory MP in 2015 and went on to be appointed a junior minister, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, before taking charge as Britain's first prime minister of Indian heritage in October 2022. The 45-year-old MP moved to the backbenches of Parliament after the Tories lost the general election in July 2024.