Former chancellor George Osborne to make £650,000 a year for a four-day-a-month role at BlackRock
Former chancellor George Osborne will be paid £650,000 a year to advise BlackRock four days a month, it has been revealed.
Osborne started his role as a part-time senior adviser at the BlackRock Investment Institute, the asset manager's research arm, on 1 February. The role is focused on European politics, China's economy, and retirement planning in an age of low yields.
The MP for Tatton's former economic adviser Rupert Harrison also works at BlackRock, he took on a role as strategist following the Conservative party's victory in the general elections in 2015.
Osborne earned £81,174 and £60,578 for two speeches at JPMorgan’s New York headquarters, the register of members’ financial interests at the House of Commons revealed today.
Read more: Already? George Osborne has been paid £100,000 for speeches
In addition to this, Lloyds Bank paid him £15,081 for a three-hour speech made last month.
In October last year, he gave a speech to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, for which he was paid £28,454.40.
Accepting his role at BlackRock in January, Osborne said: "I am excited to be working with the BlackRock Investment Institute as an adviser. BlackRock wants better outcomes for pensioners and savers – and I want to help them deliver that. It's a chance for me to work part-time with one of the world's most respected firms and a major employer in Britain.”
Former Prime Minster David Cameron was reportedly paid £120,000, or £2,000 a minute, for a speech to Wall Street stalwarts in November last year. He has also signed a deal with Harper Collins to write his memoirs.