George Osborne to make £650,000 working four days a month at Black Rock

Former chancellor George Osborne is set to earn £650,000 a year working just four days a month at global investment group Black Rock – more than ten times the amount he makes as an MP, once share awards are included.

Details of his lucrative new role emerged on Budget Day through the registry of members’ financial interests, which revealed austerity will not be the order of the day for Mr Osborne.

The registry shows he will receive the money on a quarterly basis from Black Rock from 1 February this year, although it has only just been listed some five weeks later.

The MP has seen his personal fortunes soar since he was unceremoniously sacked from Theresa May's cabinet on the back of last year's Brexit vote.

The registry shows he made £786,450 last year from giving 15 speeches – chiefly to financial institutions – after being signed to an elite public speaking agency.

His most lucrative pay days for after-dinner speeches netted him £81,174 and £60,578 for two engagements at JPMorgan’s New York headquarters lasting a total of seven hours last October. This equates to an hourly rate of more than £20,250.

He also earned £15,081 for a speech at Lloyds Bank – which is part-owned by the Government – last February when he was still Chancellor, but he gave this to a charity in his Cheshire constituency of Tatton.

Mr Osborne became a part-time senior adviser at the Black Rock Investment Institute, the research branch of the US group, in February this year, and expects to spend just one day a week working there.

The share-based bonus is expected to push Mr Osborne’s annual income from Black Rock above the £1m mark, although the amount he receives each year will depend on the company’s performance and the value of its shares.

Black Rock has said he will give his views on European policies and politics, Chinese economic reform and trends in the financial sector.

Since losing his job as Chancellor, Mr Osborne has earned £74,000 a year for doing his day job as an MP, nearly halving the salary he received as a cabinet minister when he was paid almost £70,000 more.

Last summer he was signed by the elite Washington Speakers Bureau, following in the footsteps of former Prime Ministers Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, who both earned speaking fees through the agency after leaving office.

Mr Osborne also became a Kissinger fellow on a US academic programme run by the McCain Institute, netting him an extra £120,000 a year working from his Notting Hill home.

The registry reveals the politician has earned three quarters of a million from his public speaking engagements in the past five months, as well as receiving an additional £24,392 in gifts and money for visits.

Added to his earnings from Black Rock and Kissinger, plus his MP's salary, Mr Osborne's annual income could approach the two million mark if he continues to be paid similar sums for speeches. He also owns shares in his family's wallpaper business and draws a rental income "in excess of" £10,000 a year.

Mr Osborne was a spectator in the Commons as his successor, Phillip Hammond, delivered his Budget today, reversing a policy proposed by his predecessor to reduce national insurance contributions for the self-employed.