Auditor’s report discloses the extraordinary frauds used by MEPs to siphon off staff allowances funded by taxpayers The right to speak your mind is under growing attack as society splits into ever more special-interest groups all too quick to take offence TONY BLAIR is cashing in on his experience as Britain’s longest-serving Labour prime minister by setting up a “commercial partnership” that offers clients political and economic advice. The business venture, Tony Blair Associates, has been disclosed by the official watchdog that scrutinises paid employment undertaken by former ministers. The advisory committee on business appointments said in a statement on its website this weekend: “Tony Blair has established Tony Blair Associates which will allow him to provide, in partnership with others, strategic advice on a commercial and pro-bono [free] basis, on political and economic trends and governmental reform.” The committee said it saw “no reason why he should not set up the firm forthwith”, and disclosed that this had been done this month. It is believed to be the first time a former prime minister has set up a commercial venture with the apparent intention of cashing in on time spent in office. Since stepping down as prime minister in June 2007, Blair is said to have earned as much as £15m from a variety of business deals and a book venture. He has been paid a £4.5m advance for his Downing Street memoirs, a £2.5m salary as a part-time adviser to the American investment bank JP Morgan Chase and £2m for an adviser’s role with the Swiss firm Zurich Financial Services. He has also worked on the after-dinner lecture circuit. Last year a Spanish newspaper reported that he had earned up to £240,000 for making a 90-minute speech to 2,000 entrepreneurs in Barcelona. Blair also receives a taxpayer-funded pension of £63,468 a year, plus an annual £84,000 allowance to run a private office. A spokesman for Blair said the purpose of Tony Blair Associates was to better organise management of his time so that his core activities in the Middle East would be unaffected. The spokesman has previously played down reports of huge earnings, saying Blair spends “the vast majority” of his time on his unpaid work as Middle East envoy for the European Union, the United Nations, the United States and Russia, on climate change and on working with his charity, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. Mike Warburton, a senior tax partner at the accountants Grant Thornton, said that if Tony Blair Associates had been set up as a simple partnership rather than as a limited company, it would not have to make public its income and profit. The Sunday Times reveals how the pay and perks of MEPs is so extravagant they can amass a seven-figure sum in just one termSecret report reveals how MEPs make millions
AMERICAN ACCOUNT
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Sunday, 22 February 2009
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