Blair’s millions from Arab state while working as a peace envoy
TONY BLAIR faced fresh questions over potential conflicts of interest yesterday after emails revealed he was paid millions by an Arab state while working as a Middle east peace envoy.
The United Arab emirates helped to bankroll the former Prime Minister’s London office for his role as Quartet representative to the Middle east — although its contributions were never revealed on his official website, unlike those from other governments.
Meanwhile, he was paid millions in consultancy fees from a £20 billion sovereign wealth fund in Abu Dhabi, the UAe capital, and pitched for a multi-millionpound contract from the UAe government. The latest revelation will fuel criticism that Blair used his unpaid role as peace envoy to pursue his lucrative business interests in the region, an accusation he has always denied.
he took up the role after leaving No 10 and insists his public and private work were kept separate, despite repeated questions about potential conflicts of interest.
emails seen by the Daily Telegraph showed that Blair’s consultancy firm, Tony Blair Associates, contacted UAe officials in 2010 seeking payment for his ‘activities as the Quartet representative’. The Quartet comprises the UN, U.S., eU and Russia.
Separate invoices suggested the UAe foreign ministry paid $12 million (£9.25 million) towards Blair’s work on governance in Colombia, Vietnam and Mongolia.
And a separate $2 million (£1.5 million) payment was made to him from UAe foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s office in 2011, it was reported.
The payments were all made through Blair’s commercial management company Windrush, although a spokeswoman insisted the money intended for his Quartet work was ring-fenced, and that Windrush was ‘ used simply for accounting purposes’.
Mr Blair was known to have worked as an adviser to Mubadala, the £20 billion sovereign wealth fund that invests Abu Dhabi’s vast oil profits and which paid him a reported £1 million a year.
Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, a cross-party group, said the latest disclosures appeared to ‘ blow out of the water’ Blair’s insistence that there were no conflicts of interest between his Quartet role and his commercial work.
Blair stood down from his envoy role in 2015. his spokeswoman said the UAe’s contributions to his Quartet office were separate to his contract with Mubadala.
The envoy role was unpaid and he raised funds to cover the costs of his office, including staff and travel, she said. he had never carried out commercial work linked to the Israeli-Palestine issue, and said it was ‘false’ to suggest there was any conflict of interest.
‘Any emails from London-based staff of Mr Blair about money would have been in connection with the support he received for his work from the UAe,’ she said.