While Cameron’s post-PM money-making ventures are the news of the day, Theresa May’s latest update to her register of interests shows Dave how it’s done: raking in £160,370 as an advance payment for a speech to JP Morgan – for just three hour’s work. Two other newly registered speeches by the former PM, of £45,650 and £38,220, take her total post-Downing Street speech earnings to over £700,000. Unlike Cameron, she claims all were run by Pickles’s ACOBA…
Matt Hancock is another big earner this month, registering a new gift of 15% of the issued share capital of Topwood Limited, his sister’s company apparently, under “a delegated management arrangement”. Given the current on-going cronyism debate and before everyone explodes, Guido would point out that while Topwood has been awarded two contracts with the NHS for waste destruction – worth £300,000 – they were awarded by NHS Wales, not NHS England for which he is responsible. Still, it seems a little reckless in the circumstances…
Former Chief Whip and Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith is to begin earning £60,000 from a new role with a marine refurbishment company (again, having consulted ACOBA), and vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi tops things off with a new residential property in Dubai, valued at over £100,000. Nice work if you can get it…