Tony Blair becomes 'world's highest-earning public speaker' as he rakes in £12MILLION since leaving No.10



Tony Blair is estimated to have earned £12 million since leaving No 10.

The former prime minister is believed to have agreed an advance of around £4.6 million for his memoirs to be published by Random House. But his biggest income is said to be from the international public speaking circuit.

One source in the speaking industry put the figure at more than £5.3 million, adding: "He is now probably the highest-paid public speaker in the world."

Washington Speakers Bureau has a two-year waiting list to book Mr Blair, according to an analysis of his earnings by The Times, with institutions prepared to pay up to £157,000 for a speech of around an hour and a half.

Reasons to be cheerful: Blair addresses the world's political and business elite early this year - but most of his earnings come from private speeches

Private equity investor the Carlyle Group - whose board has included former prime minister Sir John Major and the two presidents Bush - is said to be keen to hire Mr Blair. Events include a conference of business experts in Europe in Paris next month, and a meeting in Dubai in February.



As a senior adviser to Wall Street bank JP Morgan Chase, Mr Blair is believed to earn up to £2 million a year, while his salary from Zurich Financial Services to work as an adviser on international politics and climate change is put at £500,000.



As a former prime minister, he is entitled to a pension of £63,468 a year, as well as £84,000 to fund a private office. Mr Blair's spokesman disputed some of the figures but declined to comment on Mr Blair's personal finances.



The £12 million figure is six times more than he would have earned as an MP. But questions are now being raised over whether Mr Blair's money-spinning activities are distracting from his work as the Middle East representative for the quartet of America, the European-Union, the United Nations and Russia.



A UN official in Jerusalem said: "There is a general sense that he is not around." But Mr Blair's spokesman stressed that no quartet officials had suggested he was not spending enough time working to bridge the divide between the Palestinians and Israel.



He added: "When Mr Blair took up the post, he said he would be spending at least a week a month in the region and that is exactly what he is doing."



The value of the Blairs' property portfolio has risen sharply over the years but will now be hit by the house price slump.



Their South Pavilion country estate in Buckinghamshire, bought for £4 million in May, is estimated to have fallen in value to £3.76 million.



Their Connaught Square house, bought for £3.65 million in 2004, is still worth more - another house in the street went for £5.5 million a few months ago - but its price will be falling.



The Blairs are believed to have accepted £285,000 for one of the Bristol flats they bought six years ago for £265,000.



Mr Blair's house in his former constituency of Sedgefield is said to have dropped in value by £14,000 since last summer to £126,000.

