Bowing to fierce public pressure, Akshata Murthy has announced she will pay full UK tax on her worldwide income as she seeks to rescue the political career of her husband, Rishi Sunak, who’s Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Akshata, who’s the daughter of former Infosys chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy, said she would stop claiming "non-domiciled" tax exemptions on her nearly $1-billion fortune that makes her richer than the Queen.

She said she was changing her tax status out of a “British sense of fairness.”

Akshata and Sunak have been in the eye of a political storm over her UK tax arrangements which, while perfectly legal, have triggered public outrage.

Since moving to Britain nine years ago, Akshata has claimed RNOR (Resident Not Ordinarily Resident) or "non-dom" status which allows her to only pay taxes on her UK income. “Non-doms” can live in the UK all year round.

Akshata holds a 0.9 stake in Infosys which may have earned her up to POUNDS STERLING 11.5 million from dividends last year alone, according to The Guardian. The family’s huge fortune has been headline news in leading newspapers.

Critics have been incensed that Akshata has been making vast tax savings as a non-dom while Sunak has been introducing tough budget austerity measures in his role as chancellor. Last month, he raised the tax burden on taxpayers to its highest since the 1940s as Britons struggle with huge cost-of-living rises.

In a statement, Akshata said: “I understand and appreciate the British sense of fairness and I do not wish my tax status to be a distraction for my husband or to affect my family.”

Akshata will pay full British taxes on her income for the last financial year but not for years before that. But she added: “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."

Akshata said she was proud of her Indian citizenship and insisted Infosys was more than a financial investment. She said: “He (Rishi) has never asked me to abandon my Indian citizenship, ties to India or my business affairs, despite the ways in which such a move would have simplified things for him politically.”

About Infosys she said: “He (Rishi) knows that my long-standing shareholding in Infosys is not just a financial investment but also testament to my father’s work, of which I am incredibly proud.”

“But I love the UK too. In my time here, I have invested in British businesses and supported British causes. My daughters are British. They are growing up in the UK. I am so proud to be here.”

She pointed out that after Sunak went into politics, they had rearranged their financial affairs and he had ceased to have anything to do with her companies. “Since Rishi entered Parliament, he has not involved himself in my business affairs and I have left politics to him.” She also added: “Until now, I have tried to keep my professional life and my husband’s political career entirely separate.”

Sunak, who’s been touted as a possible successor to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has been the target of relentless leaks about his family’s financial affairs in recent weeks. Britain’s media speculate the leaks have come directly from the prime minister’s office which may be seeking to cut Sunak down to size and ensure that he cannot angle for Johnson’s job.

Analysts point out that Sunak has failed to defend Johnson who has come under attack for holding parties at his office-cum-residence at times when Britain was under strict lockdown. One senior Conservative MP was quoted by the Financial Times as saying they were “99 per cent certain” Johnson’s office was involved while another said Sunak was in trouble because “it’s Number 10 going for him.”

Johnson denied on Friday the rumours that his office had been “briefing” against Sunak and praised his performance as chancellor.

Barely three months ago, Sunak was riding high for his generous payouts to people and businesses hit by the pandemic. But his popularity has collapsed over his management of Britain’s cost-of-living problems and the disclosures about his wife’s tax status.

Akshata’s move to change her tax status seems unlikely to calm the furore surrounding Sunak who was caught up in a new controversy Friday. The chancellor had to admit he had held a previously publicly undisclosed US green card giving him American permanent residence status until late last year and had been filing US tax returns while a British minister. A spokesman said Sunak had followed “all laws and rules.”

The pair have been the subject of scathing commentaries in almost all TV channels and newspapers and it’s widely agreed that the chancellor has likely now blown whatever possibility he once had of becoming Conservative Party leader.

Analysts also point out Sunak and his wife have shown considerable political ineptness with such moves as donating sums totalling around POUNDS STERLING 100,000 to his alma mater Winchester College where the chancellor was once headboy. These donations have come at a time when state schools are chronically short of money. On a recent occasion, Sunak also talked about how everyone in the family had different types of bread at the breakfast table.

The Guardian quoted Conservative Party MPs who said Sunak’s chances of being prime minister were “now minimal”.

Akshata noted she met her husband at a time when they were students in California, long before he had any political ambitions. She said: “When I met him we were 24-year-old business school students, living in another country, and had no idea of where life would take us. Rishi has always respected the fact that I am Indian and as proud of my country as he is of his.”

The British media’s interest in Akshata was initially triggered when journalists learned Infosys had not closed its Moscow office at a time when British firms were moving out of Russia. Akshata faced newspaper headlines accusing her of collecting “blood money dividends” from Infosys. Infosys finally took a decision to shut down in Moscow late last week.

“Lay off my missus,” was the blaring headline to an interview Sunak gave to The Sun tabloid Thursday. In the interview, Sunak said: “She (Akshata) has had her own career. She has her own investments and is paying the taxes she owes in the UK. She is 100 per cent doing everything this country asks of her.”

He added that: “It was unfair to go after his wife because she is a “private citizen”. He said he was different. “I’m a signed-up politician. So I know what I signed up for.”

In The Guardian, the satirical columnist, Marina Hyde, joked Sunak would have to take the upcoming Easter break in the UK because the Conservative Party has banned foreign holidays for now.

“Sunak will have to unwind in one of his houses in the country, as opposed to the high-end Santa Monica apartment he owns in a complex that includes a pet spa. Sunak and his wife own two apartments in London, a country house on a 24-acre estate in his Yorkshire constituency and the apartment in California.

Taking a potshot in a different direction, Hyde noted that The Daily Mail owner Lord Rothermere also cuts his tax bill by claiming non-dom status because he was born in France and has a home there. Notably, the news of Akshata’s non-dom woes was buried deep down on The Daily Mail website

But Hyde reserved her heaviest broadsides for Sunak, saying: “He used to seem invincible; now he’s the pocket Samson who’s just taken a massive haircut courtesy of his wife.”