Former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair could have earned as much as £80million since leaving office five years ago.
An interview at the weekend suggests that last year alone he raked in £20million advising business chiefs and foreign governments, suggesting such a vast sum is not out of the question.
Apart from his high-profile peace-making role in the Middle East and work at charitable foundations he has established, Mr Blair runs a business consultancy, Tony Blair Associates, which has deals with the governments of Kuwait and Kazakhstan.
He is also a paid adviser to U.S. investment bank JP Morgan and to Zurich International, a Swiss-based insurance company.
And in the interview with Financial Times editor Lionel Barber yesterday, he said he is paid £2.5million a year by J P Morgan and a lesser amount by Zurich. This is reputedly worth £1million a year.
More... Tony Blair earned £20m in just one year advising business bosses and foreign governments His marriage may be on the rocks but how rich is Johnny Depp? (and will Vanessa Paradis get a cut?)He said he also charges up to £190,000 for lectures and after-dinner speeches.
Mr Barber said in an accompanying article: ‘Mr Blair’s income last year from government advisory work as well as from speeches and consultancy is believed to have been about £20million. His financial advisory service – Tony Blair Associates – is understood to be generating several million pounds in additional revenue.’
In January he filed accounts declaring an income of £12million last year for just one of his dozen or so companies, Windrush Ventures. But the accounts appeared to show he had paid tax on only a fraction of the income, thanks to administrative expenses experts described as ‘surprisingly’ high.
Hands up: A possible return to front-line politics on the cardsClaims in 2010 that Blair had earned up to £60million in his years since stepping down as Prime Minister were dismissed by his office as 'simply ludicrous' but the true figure for Mr Blair's wealth is impossible to pin down.
He has set up a complicated web of companies through which he channels his earnings without having to declare them publicly.
Blair is widely believed to be the Washington Speakers Bureau's highest paid speaker, commanding even more than former U.S. President Bill Clinton. In one instance he earned almost £400,000 for two half-hour speeches in the Philippines.
In 2010 he was paid an estimated £1million for writing a report for the government of Kuwait on the future of the oil-rich state.
On top of these revenue streams he receives £84,000 of taxpayers' money to run a private office, and is also entitled to draw a pension of £63,468.
The former PM was also named as the 2010 recipient of the annual Liberty Award in the U.S. which includes a £67,000 cash prize.
And he and wife Cherie Booth's property portfolio is estimated to be worth around £15million, with eight homes including £1million-plus London residences for each of their three children - all within striking distance of their parents' £3.7million mansion in Connaught Square.
In the FT interview Barber does not attribute the £20million figure directly to Blair, but it appears he was briefed by aides - in an apparent attempt to clear the air about his financial status ahead of a possible return to political office.
Blair told Mr Barber, who spoke to him in Jerusalem, that the money was ploughed back into his philanthropic ventures, adding: ‘The purpose is not to make money. It is to make a difference.’
He is a top rate taxpayer, he insists, paying 50 per cent income on all his earnings.
