[guide.chat] tony blair twenty million pounds a year and six homes
- From: vanessa <qwerty1234567a@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "GUIDE CHAT" <guide.chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 30 Jun 2012 23:53:14 +0100
I'm not one of the super-rich, says Tony Blair despite being worth £20m a year
and owning six homes
He may own six or more homes, have an income of around £20 million a year and
spend his time travelling the world by private jet. Just don?t call Tony Blair
super rich.
Tony Blair's property portfolio, including his rural retreat, his London
residence and homes for three of his children Photo: PAUL GROVER/CLARA
MOLDEN/JULIAN SIMMONDS/REX
By Robert Mendick and Robert Watts9:00PM BST 30 Jun 2012
Yesterday, the former prime minister was moved to protest that he really wasn?t
a wealthy kind of guy, despite the apparent evidence to the contrary.
As part of a strategy to rehabilitate himself in Britain, Mr Blair said in an
interview: ?This notion that I want to be a billionaire with a yacht; I don?t.
I am never going to be part of the super-rich. I have no interest in that at
all.?
The protests, described by the interviewer as ?exasperated?, appeared at odds
with the lifestyle Mr Blair has enjoyed and the businesses he has established
since quitting Downing Street five years ago.
Earlier this year, The Sunday Telegraph reported how one of his companies, set
up to manage some of his business affairs, had an income of more than
£12million in 2010/11.
Mr Blair also earns about £2.5million a year as an adviser to the US investment
bank JP Morgan, a lesser sum for a similar role with Zurich insurance group and
up to £200,000 a time for speeches.
Tony Blair expands his African empire into mineral-rich Guinea 11 Mar 2012
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He also runs a financial advisory service, Tony Blair Associates, which has
lucrative deals with the oil and gas-rich governments of Kazakhstan and Kuwait
and sovereign wealth funds in China and Abu Dhabi.
The Financial Times, to which he gave the interview this weekend, estimated
that his income last year was £20million.
His total personal wealth, which includes a country house in Buckinghamshire
and a town house in Mayfair, central London, as well as homes for his children,
has been estimated at anywhere between £20million and £60million.
On his travels he tends to stay in hotel penthouse suites with an entourage
including bodyguards paid for by the British taxpayer.
His friends include several billionaires, among them Rupert Murdoch.
In the interview, Mr Blair insisted that he used his private wealth to help to
fund his burgeoning charitable empire, which includes a faith charity and an
African charity.
But he also admitted that he had plans to expand his financial advisory
service, currently registered as Firerush Ventures No. 3, which operates under
a minor licence with the Financial Services Authority (FSA), although that is
likely to be upgraded, it is suggested, to give the company more investment
capabilities.
By the end of the year, Mr Blair?s staff, most of them employed in his
charities, will have risen in number from 150 to 200. ?That figure will grow
significantly more in the next five years if I do not go on and do something
else,? he said, adding: ?The purpose is not to make money. It is to make a
difference.?
Peter Kilfoyle, a former Labour minister who was Mr Blair?s campaign manager
when he was elected Labour leader in 1994, but has since become a fierce
critic, said: ?I don?t know what he calls rich. Nobody has suggested he does
have billions, but he is obsessed by money.?
It appears that Mr Blair will expand his business empire without his closest
aide, Jonathan Powell, his former chief of staff in Downing Street, working
quite as closely with him on certain projects.
Mr Powell has had his name withdrawn from the list of individuals on the FSA
register authorised to act for Tony Blair Associates.
A source told The Sunday Telegraph yesterday: ?Jonathan Powell tried to do the
money thing, like Blair, but he really didn?t like it.
?He isn?t interested in making money. He didn?t like the financial stuff. He
found it very unsatisfying.?
Mr Powell is now devoting much of his time to Inter Mediate, a conflict
resolution body run from London.
Last night, Mr Powell said in an email response to The Sunday Telegraph that he
still worked for Mr Blair on ?country projects?.
Mr Powell also remains a senior adviser to the investment bank Morgan Stanley.
Mr Powell said: ?I like and admire Tony Blair and still talk to him regularly.?
A spokesman for Tony Blair said: "Mr Powell is a consultant in Tony Blair's
government advisory practice.
"He has been working with Mr Blair in this role since he left office and
continues to do so. They meet and speak regularly and are good friends and
colleagues."
Since leaving Downing Street, Mr Blair has faced criticism over his various
roles both in business and as a Middle East peace envoy and philanthropist with
claims that he has blurred the boundaries between his various interests.
In his interview with the FT, Mr Blair spoke of his regret at not becoming the
European Union?s first president and raised the prospect of a comeback in
British politics.
He said the ?bureaucracy? of Brussels discouraged him from pursuing the EU
presidency, but he would have accepted the job if it had been offered. ?I
sometimes wish now that when the presidency came up, I would have taken that
position ? and actually gone out on a more public campaign about what I thought
about Europe,? he said.
?I was concerned as to whether I was going to get locked up in a bureaucracy
that was going to be stifling and I did get a little alarmed about what the
powers were going to be and what they were not and so on. But no, I would have
taken the job.?
Mr Blair also spoke of how he missed his time as prime minister and was keen to
play a role in British politics again. ?It is when there are big issues that
you want to be there,? he said.
He added that he still had ?something to say? in politics. ?If people want to
listen, that?s great, and if they don?t, that?s their choice,? he said.
?I would want to emphasise how fast the world around us is changing and how
incredibly dangerous it is for us to think we can stand still.?
from
Vanessa The Google Girl.
my skype name is rainbowstar123
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