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Blair’s hedge fund job puts election role in question

The Mole: Former PM adds a Tory-led hedge fund to long list of generous paymasters

LAST UPDATED 10:22 AM, JANUARY 26, 2010

G

ood news then. Britain is officially out of its long recession - the figures were released this morning - and Tony Blair has been rescued from poverty by a London hedge fund.

You have to hand it to Tone. When it comes to timing, he's impeccably arrogant. Just when the Labour government is trying to clamp down on greed in the City, the former PM does a deal to become a paid speaker for the Mayfair-based hedge fund Lansdowne Partners, whose wealthy chairman, Paul Ruddock, is a generous donor to the Tory party.

According to some reports, Blair can expect to earn £2,000 a minute chatting about geopolitics - and regime change, no doubt - with the suits at Lansdowne. It doesn't really matter whether this is accurate - it could be £2,000 an hour. The point is, it will help Tony keep Cherie in the style to which she has become accustomed.

The news emerges only a couple of weeks after it was reported that Blair was happy to help Gordon Brown campaign against the Tories in the upcoming general election. According to one report, the former PM was just waiting for the call.

With the latest ICM poll giving Cameron a 38-seat majority, it could be argued that Brown needs all the help he can get.

But from a man who is taking his latest shilling from a company which is thought to have made £100m betting on the downfall of Northern Rock? And who this week goes before the Chilcot Inquiry as evidence mounts that he ignored legal advice to invade Iraq? Perhaps not. 

Filed under: Labour, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown