Announced in Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s latest budget were measures to offer prospective childminders a £600 bonus and a £1,200 bonus to those signing on with one of six agencies, including Koru Kids that Akshata Murty holds shares in.
Appearing at a session of the House of Commons Liaison Committee this week Sunak acknowledged that the six agencies would benefit financially but failed to mention his wife’s shares in Koru Kids.
Murty was first listed as a shareholder in March 2021 and again in March this year in documents published on Companies House.
At the hearing, Labour MP Catherine McKinnell questioned the rationale of “the use of tax payers money to give double bonuses to sign up with private agencies rather than through the current system”. She then asked if “there was anything the Prime Minister wants to declare in respect of that?”
Sunak said that the extra money was being made available as “it is a reflection of the fact that they are through intermediaries, that there are additional costs and to make sure the policy is effective at bringing additional people into the system”.
He added: “All my disclosures are declared in the normal way."
However his wife’s links with the company are not mentioned in the latest register of MPs financial interests.
The Govt’s double bonus incentivising private childminder agencies needs explaining.
— Catherine McKinnell (@CatMcKinnell) March 29, 2023
I asked the PM about it yesterday, & he couldn’t answer, but promised to get back to me.
He promised “integrity and accountability” when he entered office.
Time to set the record straight. pic.twitter.com/r8XvdyikPt
The other childcare agencies listed by the government for childminders to sign up to are Home Childcare, City Childcare, Rutland Early Years Agency, Suffolk Childcare Agency and Tiney.
Hunt’s Budget states that the “start-up grants for new childminders, including those who register with a childminder agency” would “increase choice and affordability for parents, by taking action to increase the number of childminders”.
But the policy has received criticism from the childcare sector.
“Once again, the government showed it has failed to understand the needs of childminders, with throwaway policies like childminder agencies and paltry sign-up fees likely to do little, if anything, to stem the flow of talented professionals out of the sector,” said Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance.
“For far too long, the government has failed to recognise what a pivotal role childminders play in the delivery of quality, flexible care and education.
"It’s vital that ministers work with and listen to childminders to understand what is needed to support them, rather than rolling out rushed policies that will only serve to push them closer to a point of no return.”
