Rishi Sunak compares himself to Will Smith over wife's Infosys-Russia link: ‘I didn’t slap anybody’

“Someone said, ‘Joe Root, Will Smith, and me – not the best of weekends for any of us’. But I feel, on reflection, both Will Smith and me having our wives attacked – at least I didn’t get up and slap anybody, which is good,” Sunak quipped.

At the 94th Academy Awards, Will Smith walked up on stage and slapped comedian Chris Rock for a joke about his wife actor Jada Pinkett Smith’s closely cropped hair that is due to a medical condition called alopecia.

The UK has slapped sanctions on Russia and hiked tariffs on a swathe of imports from vodka to steel, and banned exports of luxury goods in retaliation for Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. The government has also frozen the assets of several people. Reforms have also been introduced to so-called Unexplained Wealth Orders, protecting agencies from exorbitant legal costs that have previously been a brake on prosecutions. On the other hand, India, a long-standing ally of Russia has not imposed any sanctions on the country.

Rishi Sunak, 41, has been under fire recently with many questioning his and his wife’s links to Infosys which he has categorically denied and defended his wife.

During an interview with Sky News, Sunak was asked by a journalist if his advice to businesses was being followed in his own home to which he replied that as an elected politician, he was giving the interview about what he's responsible for. “My wife is not,” he said.

Also read: Rishi Sunak denies benefiting from Putin regime through wife's Infosys link

He was then asked if Infosys, which has a small team in Russia, was sending a similarly "strong message".

“I have absolutely no idea because I have nothing to do with that company,” Sunak had responded.

Infosys issued a statement recently clarifying that the company has “no active business relationships with local Russian enterprises” and said that it had committed $1 million to help the victims of the war in Ukraine.