Ex-PM Theresa May gets £2m for speeches, including £1m for just 70 hours of work
Theresa May has raked in over £2million from lucrative speeches since leaving No10 – including £1m for 70 hours’ work.
But bungling Liz Truss ’s chance of emulating her fellow ex-Prime Minister’s massive payday is remote, say experts.
They think her only chance of being booked is if she gives a warts-and-all account of how she crashed the economy and spiked mortgage rates during her six weeks as leader.
All living ex-PMs, with the exception of Boris Johnson, are available as speakers with the organisation Washington Speakers Bureau. Last month, disgraced Mr Johnson earned £315,000 for a speech and “fireside chat” at an insurance brokers’ conference in Colorado.
But Ms Truss is unlikely to command anything like that.
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Jeremy Lee, founder of JLA, the UK’s biggest speaking agency, said: “I don’t think there’ll be much demand in this country. There may be a scintilla of interest in America – but I’m doubtful. US institutions love to hear from speakers who have been a success.
“One wonders what would happen if you asked people to buy tickets to come and see her. I don’t think they would. Maybe they’d go for the wrong reasons and hurl bread rolls and soft fruit at her.”
Labour MP Justin Madders added: “Liz Truss has got as much chance of replacing Ronaldo at Manchester United as she has of getting lucrative post-PM earnings.”
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David Cameron ’s self-named company returned a profit of £836,168 in the year ending April 30, 2019, up from the £790,274 made the year before. And Mrs May has clawed in £1m this year for 70 hours of work. Her latest big cheque came a month ago, when she charged £97,000 for a five-hour speaking event in New York – taking her cash total to £984,000.
All the payments are made to Mrs May’s self-named company, from which she takes home £85,000 a year. The remainder, according to her declaration, pays staff, maintains her involvement in public life and supports her charitable work.
Lib Dem Treasury spokeswoman Sarah Olney said: “The legacy of recent Tory ministers and PMs is a broken economy, higher taxes, crumbling services and falling living standards. Perhaps the best advice ex-ministers can give is how people can protect themselves from Conservative mismanagement and incompetence.”