The Blair rich project

YOU have probably never heard of Phil Wilson. Since July 20 last year this miner’s son from County Durham has been MP for the rock-solid Lab­our seat of Sedgefield.

Whatever qualities as a New Labour drone, he will no doubt demonstrate for decades to come the most interesting thing about him is the date of his election: just 22 days after the previous ­holder of the seat, Tony Blair, resigned as Prime Minister.

In the past, PMs have tended to linger on the backbenches after leaving Downing Street. Ted Heath stayed for 27 years, while Jim Callaghan stayed for eight and then became an active member of the Lords. Margaret Thatcher kept her seat until the 1992 general election allowed her a graceful exit, while John Major remained a backbencher throughout New Labour’s first term.

But not Anthony Charles Lynton Blair. Delighting, as ever, in driving a limousine convoy through the usual way of doing things, the three-times-elected Premier could not give up his Westminster seat fast enough when the time came.

Having “never pretended to be a House of Commons man”, as Blair told MPs in his farewell appearance, he billed his resignation from Parliament as a clean break: lesser figures might keep the seat for the salary and the perks but Honest Tone would rather make way for a younger man to do the job properly.

In a further sign of his People’s Ex-Premier credentials, he also let it be known that he had no desire to become Baron Blair of Baghdad. The flummery of the House of Lords wasn’t his style, he told us.

Six months on, it is becoming clearer why. While the former PM has racked up voluntary commitments with the appetite of a hyper-active toddler – Middle East peace broker, inter-faith ambassador, global warming guru, sports messiah for the North-east, chair of the World Economic Forum in Davos – it is his greed for lucrative private-sector jobs that has stunned admirers and critics alike.

SINCE he left office he has set himself up for the kind of fortune he would never have got away with as an MP – when he would have had to declare every penny – a staggering £10,254,000 in just one year. That figure is predicted to rise to £40million in the next five years. This month, it was announced that he had taken an estimated £2.5million a year part- time job with US bank JP Morgan.

One usually Blairite newspaper wrote: “In office he was much too impressed by money and wealthy people and he lacks a sense now of how his desire to earn so much, so fast, offends against ideas of public service and the founding principles of his party. He is breaking no rules; as an ex-Prime Minister, not even an MP now, Mr Blair is a private citizen… But it is not very noble.” Blair let it be known that he expected to take on a “small handful” of similar posts with other companies.

Lo and behold, it emerged this week that he has notched up another City consultancy, netting an estimated £2million to advise Swiss financial giant Zurich on climate change. Nobody pretends that any of these jobs will take up more than a few days of his time every month.

“It’s a long way from the Red Flag,” says Lib Dem MP Norman Baker. “It used to be the case that Prime Ministers retired and, at the most, wrote their memoirs. But Tony Blair seems to have pound signs in his eyes.

“He is going round the world in search of money in a way that is demeaning to his office and makes him look cheap. Thatcher and Major went on to make money but they were not quite as brazen or grasping as this. It’s embarrassing for the UK.”

Some Labour MPs have found it hard to hide their distaste for a man whose friendships with the likes of Italy’s Right-wing billionaire former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi have always embarrassed them. Brighton Kemptown MP Des Turner  said: “He’s cashing in big time. Millions slog all their lives and end up with pitiful pensions. They don’t get rewarded on this sort of scale.”

Where once we wondered how the Blairs would ever meet the mortgage payments for the estimated £5million debt on their properties in London, Bristol and Sedgefield, that sum is beginning to look like small change for a man who is turning himself into one of the multi-millionaires whose company he has always enjoyed.

First came the after-dinner speeches – a trail already lucrat­ively blazed by his wife Cherie. With rich North Americans paying up to £1,200 a head to hear him, he is estimated to have earned up to £500,000 for a three-stop lecture tour of California and Toronto two weeks ago.

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BLAIR'S EARNINGS IN JUST ONE YEAR

£2 - Annual salary as adviser to Zurich

£2.5m - Annual salary as adviser to JP Morgan

£4.6m - Advance for Blair's memoirs

£1m - Speaking engagements (estimate)

£90,000 - Taxpayer-funded office costs

£64,000 - PM's pension

TOTAL - £10,254,000

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But even that dazzling rate pales against the £240,000 he was said to have got from a Chinese property company for a three-hour visit in which he helped market a show home and made a 20-minute speech entitled From Greatness To Excellence. His earnings from the lecture circuit are likely to top £1million in the first year alone.

He has also negotiated a £4.6million deal with Random House for his memoirs – although the bad news for the restless Blair is that the bulk of this money will not be paid until he has produced a manuscript. In other words, he may have to do some real work for it.

Then there is his portfolio of advisory roles in the City such as with JP Morgan. Blair is to provide advice on the political and econ-omic changes brought about by globalisation. Critics point out that the Wall Street investment bank is a major beneficiary of the Iraq war, running the new Trade Bank of Iraq.

It makes his prime ministerial pension of £64,000 – which will ­double when he hits retirement age – look like pin money. But taxpayers may wonder why they are paying Blair £90,000 a year for office costs when he can earn that much himself in less than an hour.

Blair’s defenders point to his frenetic unpaid activities, such as the soon-to-be-launched Blair Found­ation dedicated to promoting greater understanding between religions, and the Tony Blair Sports Foundation, designed to bring adults into sports coaching in the North-east. They also stress his role as unpaid ambassador to the Middle East for the so-called Quar­tet of Russia, the UN, EU and US.

But for his detractors, that role is an example of the farcical nature of his post-Downing Street craving for wealth and power. “I can’t think of a less appropriate person to be a Middle East peace envoy,” says Norman Baker. “It’s like putting a fox in charge of a chicken coop.”

His ignorance of the basics of the Israeli/Palestinian situation is said to have shocked UN officials escorting him from his base at the luxurious American Colony Hotel in Arab East Jerusalem, where his entour­age has taken over an entire floor. Whatever the outcome of his Middle East efforts, there is no doubt that Blair intends to remain active in international politics – and it must be to his commercial advantage that he is seen as a player rather than a has-been by world leaders.

It was when they were both holidaying at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh at Christmas that he apparently forged a plan with his friend, Right-wing French Pres­ident Nicolas Sarkozy, to pitch for nomination as the EU’s £200,000-a-year figurehead. Ironic­ally, he can expect the biggest oppos­ition to come from Gordon Brown.

Blair’s allies point out that he is only 54 – much younger than his predecessors when they left office – and he is bound to want to channel his energy and experience into a suitable public role. When Blair’s appointment at JP Morgan was announced, Jamie Dimon, the bank’s chief executive, said: “There are only a handful of people in the world who have the knowledge and relationships that he has.”

Keeping in day-to-day contact with all those world leaders can only add to his market value as he sets up his stall with its gilt-edged banner: Tony Blair, Open For Business.