Boris Johnson: Details about the thousands of pounds he earns per hour revealed

The controversial political heritage didn’t stop former PM Boris Johnson from earning insane amounts of money after he was ousted from his top job.

The latest report revealed that he made £21,000 an hour from his side jobs in the past year with an accumulated total reaching an astonishing £4.7 million.

It has also emerged that despite only 45 days as a leader of the country, Liz Truss is now enjoying the highest hourly rate of any current MP, pocketing an eye-watering £15,000.

According to Sky News’ Westminster Accounts investigation, MPs racked up £17.1 million on top of their individual £84,144 annual salaries since late 2019.

Out of that amount, two-thirds went to just 20 MPs, with Theresa May - also a former PM - having been named the highest-earning one.

Here is how Boris Johnson and his fellow once-10 Downing Street residents ended up getting such huge sums.

Here is what’s behind Boris Johnson’s £4,7 million fortune

Boris Johnson’s ability to lead the country doesn’t seem to match his skills when it comes to monetising on the role, which may be a good thing for his wife Carrie who has just given birth to their third baby.

Former PM has earned around £4.7m over the past year which equals to an astonishing £21,000 an hour.

The cash was mostly paid for speaking at events overseas after he was ousted from the top job, which some believe has been masterminded by current PM Rishi Sunak.

As well as making around £4.2m from getting ‘worldly’ here and there, Johnson - who is known for writing books too - pocketed £510,000 from a deal with HarperCollins to pen a memoir ‘like no other’.

Although he lost his £86,000 MP salary following the damning Partygate report, he immediately secured a ‘very-high six-figure sum’ to write his new weekly column for the Daily Mail.

The multimillion fortune includes between £200,000 and £275,000 from a series of speeches in the US, India and Singapore and some hefty donations made after his departure from Downing Street.

Just a Thai-based Brexiteer Christopher Harborne alone wired Boris Johnson £1 million.

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Liz Truss’s top earnings revealed

It emerged that Johnson’s successor Liz Truss who only held the PM role for 6 weeks has the highest hourly rate of any current MP – a massive £15,000 per hour.

Money is mostly earned by speaking abroad on global affairs, although she too received generous donations.

Truss was gifted £100,000 by interior designer Natasha Barnaba and another £100,000 by Fitriani Hay, the wife of former BP executive James Hay.

A recent speech in Taiwan on the threat posed by China earned her £80,000, while a gig with a newspaper in Switzerland saw her get £32,000.

An Indian media firm paid her £65,000 white another speaking engagement at Tokyo University - £6,000.

Should MPs really work that many hours outside their main roles?

The latest Sky News analysis of MPs’ earnings outside of parliament - Westminster Accounts - revealed that they are now making an average of £233 per hour on top of their main roles, with more than £17 million earned from side hustles since the 2019 election.

Tory MP Douglas Ross, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, worked 3,869 hours outside Westminster and Holyrood while fellow Tory Sir Geoffrey Cox tallied up the longest time in the private sector by working 2,565 hours.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer threatened a crackdown on second jobs for MPs to stop lobbying scandals and promised a new standards regime, which would include a ban on former ministers lobbying or carrying out paid work relating to their old roles for at least five years.

Jill Rutter, a senior fellow at the Institute for Government, suggested MPs should declare how much time they are taking away from Parliament as a speech ‘given in Chicago or Calcutta’ makes politicians unavailable to work for their constituents’ best which is what their role is all about.

Read more:

⋙ Liz Truss paid £65k for attending conference: How is the former PM earning money today?

⋙ Theresa May is the highest-earning MP in Westminster, here is how much she pocketed last year

Sources used:

- Independent: Boris Johnson making £21,000 an hour as second jobs earnings revealed