Previous Prime Ministers? Are they pure?

Tony Blair has been widely accused of corruption and shady practices. These are so extensive that he has been given an article all of his own - See Tony Blair. He bailed out the US Investment Banks by selling UK gold and then got a £2m a year job at JP Morgan Chase. He backed the Iraq war then received millions from middle eastern consultancies. There is no legal reason to believe these are not innocent and are not just random connections.

But what of the other "elder statesmen", do they provide sage advice on the running of the country or are they the representatives of Multinational Businesses and Banks?

John Major "This is money" gave this summary in 2002:

£500,000 pa from US Investment firm Carlyle Group plus lucrative investment rights
£105,000 pa from from Mayflower Corporation
£100,000 pa from Credit Suisse First Boston Bank
£100,000 pa from the giant US Emerson Electric
£25,000 a speech minimum - one speech in US earned £140,000
He owns a £3m penthouse on the Thames

David Cameron has a net worth of £40million. Although this figure is unlikely to include his offshore holdings (remember the Panama Papers?).

The publisher William Collins gave him a book deal for £800,000. (At 20% royalty rate they must have been expecting to clear £4,000,000 - 200,000 sales of "For the Record", it has sold under 70,000). Vast sums for book deals and speaking engagements look suspiciously like settling accounts. Cameron charged £120,000 an hour to speak at the Washington Speakers Bureau.

Cameron has a job as Chairman of the advisory board at Afiniti, a US company that matches people in business. The average salary for this type of job in Afiniti is around £180,000 pa.

Having allowed Chinese investment in the UK nuclear industry Cameron is well aware of dealings with China. Cameron's big earner is likely to be the UK-China Fund which aims to raise a $billion in investment. The great thing about such funds is that even if they fail the founders get a guaranteed salary. It also has the advantage that the amount of this salary is extremely hard to pin down and it is reasonable to move money received through international banking hubs such as Panama.

Xi Jinping and David Cameron

There is, of course, no suggestion here that this is any sort of pay-off for favours to China.

Theresa May is only just getting into gear.

"She received a £190,000 “signing bonus” from Washington Speakers Bureau and in December earned £100,000 from investment bank UBS Switzerland AG for delivering a speech at a conference for the group. She received another £75,500 for a speech at JPMorgan Chase, another investment bank." FT.

Those innocent US investment banks are very generous.

30/9/2020

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