According to experts, Boris Johnson could earn more than £ 5 million a year after leaving Downing Street.
The figure will be welcome news for a prime minister who regularly complains to friends that he is tough, citing his second divorce, several children and his reduced income since he entered No. 10.
In fact, Johnson’s £ 155,376 salary puts him at 1% higher in the UK. Their housing, transportation, and much of their living costs are covered by the taxpayer.
Regardless of whether your financial problems are real or imaginary, there are two certainties, says Tom Bower, one of Johnson’s biographers: that he has no hope for money and will have no problem making many after leaving office. .
“It’s because he’s such a bad money manager that he got into this ridiculous situation with the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat,” Bower said. “After that debacle, the Tory party financiers put him aside and told him not to worry about money; that his future earnings were guaranteed to be so strong that he could take out any loan he needed at very low rates. “
Giles Edwards spoke with many former world leaders about their lives after leaving office for his book The Ex Men. He agrees that Johnson’s revenue potential after Downing Street is incredibly strong. “Former leaders are being offered everything imaginable for rates that can be nothing short of extravagant,” he said. Johnson’s memoirs alone are guaranteed to earn him about a million pounds, Edwards estimates.
In Johnson’s backbank days, when he earned about £ 830,000 for newspaper columns, books, speeches and television appearances, he referred to the £ 250,000 he received for his Daily Telegraph column as “chicken feed.” .
But no matter how lightly he weighed in when he was making a lot of money, there seems to be no doubt that he and the Daily Telegraph will return to each other’s arms by the time he finishes his term in office.
The biggest money, however, is to be won at the conference circuit: Theresa May has earned more than £ 2.1 million since July 2019. Johnson’s fame means he could demand higher fees, says Tom Clark , contributing editor of Prospect magazine, especially in the US where Donald Trump has spoken of him as a British version of himself. “He has a Trumpian base ready around here,” Clark said. “But that doesn’t mean Democrats hate him. He’ll have supporters on both sides.”
The record of those people during the charge, it seems, is of little importance in the conference circuit. Nor is it relevant to corporations willing to pay about half a million to former leaders to impress their customers.
“What people around the world have told me,” Edwards said, “is that incorporating big names isn’t necessarily making connections or generating business in any direct sense. They want to be able to tell potential customers, ‘I’d like to.’ that the former prime minister should come to dinner? ‘”
Andrew Gimson, whose second biography of Johnson will be published this fall, agrees that Johnson’s main fundraising activities will be on the celebrity conference circuit. “He will be able to command at least £ 100,000 per speech in America, Japan, China and Australia, and easily make between £ 15 and £ 20 a year.”
But while your track record may not hurt your brand, there is something that does. Sonia Purnell, another of Johnson’s biographers, wonders if Johnson’s two great loves, power and money, could destroy each other.
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“There’s a tension here: he doesn’t resign, but the longer he tries to hold on, the more his brand sinks,” he said. “The image of his fingernails scratching against the Downing Street wall as people try to drag him and he tries to hold on is not good for his mark.”
But there is another reason why Johnson may not be making a lot of money in a long time. According to Gimson, his main occupation in leaving office will be to try to return.
“Johnson could have made many millions by becoming a TV star like Jeremy Clarkson or Piers Morgan,” Gimson said. “But he chose power over money. I think he’ll do it again. Johnson loves power. I definitely see him giving it another whirlwind.”