By RIA Novosti
London : Former British prime minister Tony Blair is to receive 2.5 million pounds a year ($4.9 million) after being hired by investment bank JP Morgan in a “senior advisory capacity”.
Blair, who stood down as prime minister last year after having held office for over a decade, took the part-time post last week.
Initial reports suggested that he would receive around 500,000 pounds (around $1 million) a year. However, a report in the Daily Mail on Tuesday, referring to an interview given by BBC business editor Richard Preston, reported that the job would be worth five times that amount.
“Having now spoken to bankers close to this deal, I am told $5 million is what JP Morgan is paying, though Morgan’s and Blair’s offices are refusing to publish the pecuniary details,” Preston said.
The former PM is to advise JP Morgan on political and economic changes caused by rapid globalization.
“I have always been interested in commerce and the impact of globalization,” Blair had earlier told the Financial Times.
JP Morgan was recently chosen to run the new Trade Bank of Iraq. The bank has already raised billions of dollars in trade guarantees by mortgaging off the future production of oil. Large profits are expected for the bank and JP Morgan as Iraq’s economy and oil-producing facilities begin to recover following the U.S.-led 2003 invasion, supported by the then-British prime minister, Tony Blair.
Reg Keys, whose son Tom was killed in Iraq in 2003, told the Daily Mail that Blair’s acceptance of the post was “almost akin to taking blood money”.
“If he had a conscience or any sensitivity, he would not have taken this job,” he added.
Blair has also recently signed a ?5 million ($9.79 million) deal to write his memoirs and receives a prime minister’s pension of ?64,000 ($125,000) a year.
One of Wall Street’s leading banks, JP Morgan is part of JP Morgan Chase & Co, a global financial services firm with assets of $1.5 trillion and offices in over 50 countries.