Rishi Sunak To Visit United States Next Week Following Green Card Revelation

The chancellor will fly to Washington DC for a meeting of the International Monetary Fund.
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Rishi Sunak will travel to the United States later this month, the first time he will have visited the country since it was revealed held a green card while serving as chancellor.

It comes after Sunak and Boris Johnson were issued a fine by police for breaking lockdown rules in the partygate scandal.

Both men have rejected demands from opposition parties that they resign.

Sunak is due to visit Washington DC from April 19 until April 21 to take part in the Spring Meetings of the IMF.

A spokesperson for the chancellor confirmed to HuffPost UK the current plan was for him to attend the summit.

The meeting brings together bankers, ministers, private sector bosses and academics to discuss the global economy and politics.

Sunak has been under intense pressure over the last week following a series of revelations about his family’s finances.

Following a report from Sky News, Sunak admitted he held a green card for more than year into his time in No.11.

He was appointed to the job in February 2020. But did not give up the green card until October 2021.

Green cards holders are allowed live and work permanently in the United States.

They must pay US tax on their worldwide income and also pledge to make the the country their forever home.

At the time it was revealed, spokesperson for Sunak said the chancellor had continued to file US tax returns, “but specifically as a non-resident, in full compliance with the law”.

Sunak met his wife, Akshata Murty, at Stanford university in California, and the couple own a property in Santa Monica.

Last week White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked whether it was appropriate for a senior figure in a foreign government to have held a green card.

“I’ll see if there’s more we can provide you,” she told reporters.

Sunak had been seen as the most likely successor to Johnson, should the prime minister be forced out over partygate.

But the revelations about his wife’s non-dom tax status, his having held a green card and the poorly received spring statement mini-Budget have damaged his standing among Tory MPs.

Abena Oppong-Asare, Labour’s shadow exchequer secretary to the Treasury, said: “The chancellor was less than transparent when he last travelled to the US - a time when businesses were facing huge challenges at the height of Omicron.

“One can only hope he will be far more open this time.

“Against the back drop of low growth, plummeting living standards and a cost of living crisis, a chancellor embroiled in a scandal of rule breaking and his own tax affairs is hardly a picture to be proud of.

“Now that he and the prime minister have been found to have broken the law, he should have the decency and humility to resign.”

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