PM says – unlike Rishi Sunak – he WON’T benefit from cost-of-living handouts despite multiple homes

Boris Johnson today suggested he won’t benefit personally from the Government’s energy bills handout – unlike Rishi Sunak – despite having more than one property.

The Prime Minister insisted his ‘arrangements are different’ to those of the Chancellor, who has promised to donate his estimated £1,200 benefit from the new cost-of-living support to charity.

The huge £21billion bailout unveiled by Mr Sunak yesterday includes £400 towards energy bills for all 28million households in the country.

But the subsidy will be applied to properties rather than individuals, so those with multiple homes could rack up significantly higher savings. 

The Chancellor – who recently featured on the Sunday Times Rich List with billionaire heiress wife Akshata Murty – today urged people who do not need the money to ‘join me’ in giving the cash to good causes.

Mr Sunak is believed to own three homes in the UK, including a house and a flat in central London and a sprawling estate in his Yorkshire constituency.

That would potentially give a £1,200 benefit. 

Boris Johnson’s properties are all listed as being rented out while he uses official residences in Downing Street and at Chequers – where he does not directly pay utility bills

But, asked if he would follow the Chancellor’s lead in donating payments to charity, the PM suggested he wouldn’t be benefiting from the energy bills handout.

‘My arrangements are different because I live in a Government flat,’ he told reporters on a visit to Stockton-on-Tees.

According to his register of interests as an MP, Mr Johnson has a 20 per cent share of a property in Somerset, a 50 per cent share of a property in London, and also owns a home in Oxfordshire.

But they are all listed as being rented out while he uses official residences in Downing Street and at Chequers – where he does not directly pay utility bills.

The Chancellor has not registered any rental income from his UK property portfolio.

He was also reported to have moved out of his official residence in Downing Street last month in the wake of the controversy over his family’s tax affairs.

Asked about his own intentions on ITV’s Good Morning Britain today, Mr Sunak said: ‘I’m sure you will join me in giving that money to charity.’

Justifying the way the new cost-of-living support was being delivered to all households rather than just the poorest, the Chancellor said there are only a couple of ‘practical’ ways of delivering payments, either universally or through the council tax system, which could exclude some deserving individuals.

He told BBC Breakfast: ‘Second homes account for one or two per cent of the property stock.’

Rishi Sunak – who recently featured on the Sunday Times Rich List with heiress wife Akshata Murty – urged people who do not need the money to ‘join me’ in giving energy bill handouts to good causes

Mr Sunak is believed to own three homes in the UK, including a house and a flat in central London and a sprawling estate in his Yorkshire constituency (pictured)

Mr Sunak said there are only a couple of ‘practical’ ways of delivering payments, either universally or through the council tax system, which could exclude some deserving individuals

An estimated 770,000 households own two homes that are not routinely rented out, and 60,000 have three.

The Chancellor, aged 42, recently became the first frontline politician to be named in the Sunday Times Rich List together with his wife.

The couple are credited with a joint fortune of £730million, putting them at 222 in the top 250 richest people in the UK.

Ms Murty owns a £430million stake in her Indian tech billionaire father’s IT business, and was recently embroiled in a row over having non-dom tax status.