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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Frances Kindon

Boris Johnson 'already has a Plan B - and it will make him millions'

When Boris Johnson announced his resignation as Prime Minister today, he left himself out of a job and out of a home.

But fear not because like a cat with nine lives, wily Boris, 58, apparently has a Plan B up his sleeve that could see him get very rich, very quickly.

Which will no doubt be music to his ears to the father-of-seven, who is said to have found his £157,000 PM salary a bit of a tight squeeze.

Before coming to office, he is estimated to have earned about £830,000 for his newspaper columns, books, speeches and TV appearances.

He even once famously referred to the £250,000 he received for his Daily Telegraph column 'chicken feed'.

Boris Johnson is apparently a man with a plan (Getty Images)

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In an unearthed interview from 2009, Boris, who was London Mayor at the time, insisted it was "wholly reasonable" for him to write newspaper columns on the side because he did them "very fast."

Asked about the lucrative side-hustle by BBC's HardTalk programme, he sniffed: "It's chicken feed."

He said: "I happen to write extremely fast. I don't see why on a Sunday morning I shouldn't knock off an article, if someone wants to pay me for that article then that's their lookout and of course I make a substantial donation to charity.

Boris Johnson is about to embark on a new chapter (2022 Getty Images)

"Maybe that money shouldn't go to charity, maybe you'd rather I didn't make those contributions to charity. It seems to me to be a wholly reasonable thing to do."

Disgruntled former aide Dominic Cummings previously said the Conservative leader always planned to drop and roll after the next election in a bid to 'make money and have fun' - claims Downing Street branded "utter nonsense".

Dominic Cummings claimed Boris always had an escape plan (AFP via Getty Images)

However, Boris has apparently been told that money won't ever be an issue again.

There will be the usually money-making exercises on offer, including a memoir worth in the region of £1million.

Giles Edwards, author of The Ex Men, has interviewed numerous former leaders and said Boris can expect to make some serious money.

“Former leaders are offered everything imaginable for fees that can be nothing short of extravagant,” he told the Guardian.

But the lectures are where the cash is really at. His predecessor Theresa May is said to have earned more than £2.1million since being outsted three years ago. And given Boris' longer term in office, he could potentially command much higher rates - especially in the US, where is has been compared to Donald Trump.

Theresa May is said to have made millions on the lecture circuit (Sky News)

Usual rates for a celebrity speaker are around £100,000 per speech. Just 10 of those a year and Boris is already looking at some major cash.

Indeed, speaking to the Guardian, one of Boris' biographers, Tom Bower, claims the politician was told by 'financiers who fund the Tory party' that he "he didn’t need to worry about money; that his future earnings were guaranteed to be so strong that he could take out whatever loans he needed at very low rates.”

But despite the potential to make stacks of cash, this might not be the last you've seen of Boris. In fact, biographer Andrew Gimson believes Boris prizes power over money and will be hell-bent on finding a way back in.

“Johnson could have made many millions by becoming a TV star like Jeremy Clarkson or Piers Morgan,” Gimson told the Guardian. “But he chose power over money. I think he’ll do that again. Johnson loves power. I can certainly see him giving it another whirl.”

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