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Boris Johnson earns £160,000 for two speeches

Huge sum revealed days after former foreign secretary judged to have breached rules on declaring interest in Somerset property

Jon Sharman
Thursday 25 April 2019 13:59 EDT
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Boris Johnson cycles into Westminster on 1 April, 2019
Boris Johnson cycles into Westminster on 1 April, 2019 (Getty Images)

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Boris Johnson was paid £40,000 an hour for giving a speech to an Indian magazine company, parliamentary records show.

The former foreign secretary received nearly £123,000 for a three-hour engagement with India Today on 2 March.

Transport and accommodation were also provided by the New Delhi-based company, Living Media India Limited.

He was also paid £38,250 plus VAT by Citigroup for another two-and-a-half hour speech 10 days later, the register revealed.

This means he earned more than £160,000 for the two addresses.

Mr Johnson, the MP for Ruislip in west London, earns £275,000 a year for a weekly column in the Daily Telegraph in addition to his parliamentary salary of £79,468.

The latest register also shows he received an £8,000 donation from digger company JCB in March.

It came a month after another £15,000 donation from the firm and two months after he gave a Brexit speech at its headquarters in Rocester, Staffordshire, in January, when he was given a further £10,000 donation.

Mr Johnson, who is widely thought to be preparing a bid to succeed Theresa May as Conservative Party leader, is also shown to have a 20 per cent interest in a residential property in Somerset .

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He was recently judged to have breached Commons rules by failing to declare the house within the required time limit. He was threatened with "serious sanction" by the Commons Standards Committee if he were to behave in a similar manner again.

He apologised to MPs for his late declaration of £52,000 of outside earnings last December.

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