Boris Johnson becoming highest-earning MP this parliament with £2.4m for speaking events
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by 0 Boris Johnson has declared a nearly £2.5m advance payment for speaking events, bringing his earning this parliament up to £4.8m.
The former PM’s latest update to the MPs’ register of interests showed he received £2,488,387.53 as an advance for speeches arranged via the Harry Walker Agency.
The Harry Walker speaking agency has other high-profile clients including former US presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and former vice-president Al Gore.
The latest donation makes him the highest earning MP this parliament as he overtakes former PM Theresa May, who declared nothing in the past two months but has received £2.5m since late 2019.
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The previous update to the MPs’ register of interests showed Mr Johnson had earned nearly £1m in January alone, receiving £200,892.86 for a speech to Aditya Birla Management, an Indian conglomerate, and £246,406.57 from Bloomberg Singapore for a speech he made in the city.
Combined with a £3,000 payment for an article he wrote for The Spectator magazine – which he said took an hour to write – his total earnings from 14 December to 13 January were £960,298.
These figures follow revelations in the Westminster Accounts investigation by Sky News and Tortoise, which showed that Mr Johnson had earned £1,064,785 from jobs outside his salary as an MP or prime minister since the beginning of this parliament, which started in December 2019.
The previous total of his earnings prior to February’s update was £2,328,964.
Adding the latest £2.4m entry, the total of Mr Johnson’s outside earnings is now £4,817.352.
The money comes on top of the £84,000 salary Mr Johnson receives as an MP.
Read more about MPs’ finances:
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The Westminster Accounts: The story so far
The latest update to the MPs’ register of interests also reveals that Mr Johnson received use of accommodation from Lady Bamford at an estimated value of £10,000.
Another donation of accommodation from both Lord and Lady Bamford was valued at £3,500.
Other new entries to the register include:
• Former PM Liz Truss receiving £15,000 from Johan Eliasch, president of the International Ski Federation, “for staff and office costs to support me with policy”
• Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and a staff member received lunch from Google at the World Economic Forum in Davos at a total value of £380
• Former cabinet minister Simon Clarke received £5,000 from Conservative donor and Ukrainian businessman Alexander Termerko
• Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was paid to go to Washington by The Progressive International (at a total value of £1,452.85) for “congressional meetings and public advocacy on press freedom and the case of Julian Assange”
• Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith received £7,000 from Riva Media Ltd for a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos alongside flights and transfers
• Five Conservative MPs received ski passes while at the World Economic Forum in Davos
• Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy received £2,040 from Equiida Ltd as a second, a 50% instalment for a four-hour speaking event
• Former Wales secretary Alun Cairns received an £8,000 termination payment after ending his work as a senior adviser to private hire transport and technology platform Veezu Holdings Ltd – for which he was paid £15,000 annually
• Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting received £34,425 for staffing costs from MPM Connect Ltd – a company that Sky News discovered has no staff or website and is registered at an office where the secretary says she has never heard of them
All MPs must declare any donations, gifts, payments and any other benefits they receive.
The MPs’ register of interests is updated every few weeks.
