Boris Johnson could make millions from book deals and the speaking circuit, if former Prime Ministers are anything to go by.
Although Mr Johnson’s brief tenure as Prime Minister is coming to an end, he will not be short of opportunities.
Previous Prime Ministers, including Tony Blair and David Cameron, have made a fortune from book deals and speaking at events.
Mr Blair was reported to have been paid “up to £5 million” in 2007 for his political memoir A Journey.
While Mr Cameron was reported to have earned £1.5 million for his memoir, For The Record.
Similarly, Mr Blair is said to earn up to £300,000 per appearance on the speaking circuit and Mr Cameron has been reported to earn £120,000.
Neil Martin, a senior agent at NMP Live, a speakers booking agency that represents everyone from comedian Sir Lenny Henry to Nigel Farage, said that the soon-to-be former Prime Minister would be able to command “six figure” sums on the circuit.
“For someone like Boris, he will get snapped up with a bureau, he has always done speaking,” he said.
However, he said Mr Johnson would make less in the UK than on the international stage.
“You tend to find with people in his position that there’s less popularity in their own country.
“So everyone knows Tony Blair did extremely well on the speaking circuit, but the British people see your own Prime Ministers and leaders very differently to the rest of the world.
“Everyone has got their opinion on Tony Blair and all that sort of thing.
“Tony Blair’s vast income from speaking has come from America and Asia. Businesses in the UK aren’t going to pay a fortune to hear Tony Blair speak. It’s just one of those things, and the same with Cameron.
“Cameron has made a lot of money doing speaking, but I would imagine that the bookings in the UK are a lot less than they are internationally – and it’s going to be the same for Boris.”
He added that Mr Johnson would not earn “big bucks” in the UK.
“The whole reason that Boris is going is obviously due to popularity,” he said.
“While there will be some British businesses, associations and institutions that will pay to hear him speak, as he’s our own Prime Minister we kind of know what he has got to say in that sense, and his opinions on a lot of things, and because of his popularity he’s not going to earn big bucks over here.
“He will get snapped up, probably by a large American speaker agency that will get him more work in the vast territory that is America and Asia than in the UK.”
Aside from potential future earnings, the Prime Minister also has assets to fall back on. He jointly owns a £1.2 million house in Camberwell with his wife Carrie, as well as 20% of his father’s farm in Somerset.
No stranger to book deals, he was reported to have been paid a £500,000 advance by Hodder & Stoughton for a book about Shakespeare.
However, his finances have received media attention, most notably when a refurb of his No 11 Downing Street flat was reported by The Times to have cost £200,000, well over the £30,000 annual budget available to Prime Ministers for such work.
Lord Brownlow of Shurlock Row was set to pay for the excess costs, but after the news broke Mr Johnson offered to pay the bill himself.
