Ken Clarke earns £114k for speeches

NICK CLEGG was criticised this week for netting £22,500 from Goldman Sachs for a two-and-a-half hour speech — despite being a high-profile critic of the investment bank during the financial crisis.

But Ken Clarke, the former chancellor, could teach the Lib Dems’ erstwhile leader a thing or two about balancing the books. Last month alone, Clarke earned £10,000 from Royal Bank of Scotland for speaking at a client dinner in Amsterdam, plus a further £10,000 for orating at a dinner hosted by a Swiss bank.

That takes Clarke’s total pay cheque from speaking gigs for big business over the past year to a lucrative £114,500.