Blair paid $500,000 for 20-minute talk

Published: November 8 2007 20:24 | Last updated: November 8 2007 20:24

Tony Blair has been paid more than $500,000 (£237,000) for a 20-minute speech in China, suggesting he has overtaken Bill Clinton to become the world’s most sought-after public speaker.

Britons might have tired of hearing from the former prime minister but in the southern Chinese industrial town of Dongguan his words appear to be worth their weight in gold.

Dongguan Guangda, a local property developer, this week paid Mr Blair a post-tax speaking fee of $330,000 and paid another $175,000 in tax on his behalf, according to the Guangdong Provincial Tax Bureau.

Mr Blair’s lucrative speech to a group of about 600 Communist party officials, businessmen and investment bankers confirms he has shot into the super league of after-dinner speakers.

Mr Clinton, the former US president, was paid a mere $100,000 for a speaking engagement in Hong Kong last year, according to his wife Hillary’s financial disclosure statement. However, in 2002 he was reported to have earned $250,000 for a 30-minute speech in Shenzhen.

Rudolph Giuliani, the US presidential hopeful, has received no more than $100,000 for a single speaking engagement organised through the Washington Speakers Bureau this year.

Mr Blair has become a highly successful one-man industry since leaving Downing Street. Apart from public speaking, he is expected to receive up to £5m for his memoirs. His wife, Cherie, is also writing her personal story.

His supporters point out that he needs to make a living because he has a large mortgage to pay on a house in London’s Connaught Square. His job as an international envoy to the Middle East is unpaid.

Mr Blair’s spokesman declined to comment on the amount the former prime minister received for his speeches.

The brief appearance in Dongguan followed a speech to the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce on Monday evening and another on Wednesday to the Businessweek CEO conference in Beijing.

Organisers of the conference said they were forbidden from revealing how much he was paid for the speech under the terms of his contract. His final appearance in China was at the Diaoyutai State Guest House on Thursday morning where he was the guest of Ospraie, a large commodities hedge fund.

In at least two of his speeches on this trip Mr Blair mentioned that his seven-year-old son was learning Chinese at school.