Tony Blair is quietly advising the Saudi government under a £9 million deal with his "institute for global change", The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.

The former prime minister's company reached an agreement earlier this year to help support the Saudi Crown Prince's modernisation programme, under a "not for profit" arrangement.

It is the first major deal to have emerged involving the Tony Blair Institute, which Mr Blair established in 2016 after winding down his commercial operations.

This newspaper understands that the institute received a $10 million (£7.6 million) payment in January for the work, which is carried out by the institute's staff based in the Middle East.

The payment was made from Media Investment Ltd (MIL), a Guernsey-registered firm which is a subsidiary of the Saudi Research and Marketing Group, a large publishing group chaired until recently by Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Farhan, who is now the kingdom’s culture minister.