Hugh O'Leary

As the prime minister fights to remain in power, deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner demands she come clean over her interests.

“If the public are to have faith that those in high office are being open about any potential conflicts of interest and will not seek to use their position of power for personal benefit, it is essential that these declarations are full and accurate,” Rose Whiffen, research officer at Transparency International UK, told openDemocracy. But a month after O’Leary moved into Number 10, all the public knows is that he is an “accountant”. “Whether Liz Truss has provided inaccurate information on her husband’s employment on purpose or by accident, this certainly demonstrates a lack of attention on her part,” the Scottish National Party MP for Glasgow Central, Alison Thewliss, told openDemocracy. “The prime minister should hold themselves to the highest standards of transparency. He worked at the company between 2015 and 2017, and has previously worked as financial controller at shopping giant Westfield UK. “The prime minister has serious questions to answer about these troubling inconsistencies in her own transparency returns,” Rayner told openDemocracy. That is now the rule of how the UK government is run, and not the exception to it.” Little is known about Arrakis Investments, which has no website and shares its name with the fictional desert planet featured in the sci-fi novel, Dune. In 2017, however, Arrakis Commercial also had only one employee, Jonathan Raymond. Truss first disclosed her husband’s work in 2017, while she was chief secretary to the treasury. It is unclear where O’Leary has been employed since 2017. [the resignation of Lord Geidt](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/statement-from-lord-geidt-15-june-2022), there has not been an update to the [List of Ministers’ Interests](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/list-of-ministers-interests/list-of-ministers-interests-may-2022-html#foreign-commonwealth-and-development-office) since May.