Cost of Living crisis: Boris Johnson couldn’t manage on £164,000 a year so he got £800,000 credit from a relation to help
As we enter 2023 many are struggling to get by thanks to sky high energy prices and the economic impact of 44 day Truss.
The former Prime Minister Boris Johnson is just one of the many. Since he was given the boot as Tory leader and PM in July 2022 he is reported to have earned over £1 million from speeches. Certainly his speeches are entertaining, full of anti-woke jokery, even if they never make coherent sense- deliberately so. Whether that act is worth any money is another matter.
When he was PM Johnson was paid £164,000 a year. It was a significant drop from the £275,000 a year he had been paid for 10 hours work a month at the Telegraph. The Sunday Times(15th Jan) reports that Johnson was in financial difficulties. There was after all the divorce from his wife Marina Wheeler. Then there is the question of maintenance money for an unknown number of children.
To address this issue Johnson came to an agreement with a distant Canadian relation and billionaire Sam Blyth to be able to draw down on a credit facility of £800,000. This was OK’d by Parliamentary authorities on the basis that Johnson had no other links with Blyth. In fact he had applied for a top role at the British Council but was rejected for it when the link with Johnson was discovered (rather than declared).
More recently Johnson has stayed at Blyth’s Dominican holiday home but not declared it because, conversely to the above, its regarded as a family favour.
It perhaps answers the question of how the perpetually ‘broke’ Johnson could ever afford to be PM again. Many Tories no doubt are content that the wealthiest MP in the Commons Rishi Sunak is currently PM
Update
Johnson has registered a £510,000 advance from Harper Collins for his memoirs and noted that he has so far spent 10 hours on them. £50,000 an hour is quite modest by Johnson’s statement
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