Johnson paid more than £90,000 for 2-hour speech
Boris Johnson has been paid more than £90,000 by a US asset management firm for two hours worth of work on a speech – dwarfing his annual salary as an MP.
The lucrative payment, which is listed in parliament’s register of members’ financial interests, comes after it was disclosed three armoured water cannons Mr Johnson purchased while London mayor had been sold at a loss of more than £300,000.
According to the official register, Mr Johnson received £94,507 from New York-based GoldenTree Asset
Management for a “speaking engagement” on 8 November. Travel and accommodation were also provided. This is on top of his annual salary as an MP of £77,379 and column in The Daily Telegraph, which rakes in £22,916 a month for 10 hours work – equivalent to a rate of £2,291 per hour.
Mr Johnson, who has rallied against Theresa May since quitting as foreign secretary in the summer over her Brexit plans, often includes blistering attacks on the direction of travel of the current administration in his weekly column. He attracted widespread condemnation for one particular column earlier this year after comparing Muslim women wearing niqabs to letterboxes.
Updates to the register also show that in September and last month, the MP for Uxbridge received more than £9,000 for royalties on books already written, alongside a one-off payment for £2,000 for an article in the Daily Mail.
Earlier this week it was revealed by Mr Johnson’s successor at City Hall, Sadiq Kahn, that water cannon vehicles purchased by the MP while he was London mayor had been sold to a firm that will dismantle them and export the costs.
Mr Johnson had bought the machines from Germany in 2014, before they had been licensed on the UK mainland. In an embarrassing episode for Mr Johnson, the then home secretary Ms May banned them from being used and used the purchase to ridicule him during the 2016 Tory leadership contest.
The water cannon cost £322,000 to purchase second-hand and then refit – including £32,004 for low emission zone compliance, £19,035 for repainting, £3,109.20 for signage, and £970.50 for the fitting of radios and CD players.
They have now been sold for just £11,025 to Nottinghamshire-based Reclamations (Ollerton) Ltd, who will dismantle them and export the parts.