Boris Johnson pockets £160,000 for just two speeches
2 min read
Boris Johnson has bagged a staggering £160,000 in additional earnings for two speeches he gave in March.
The former Foreign Secretary trousered nearly £123,000 for a three-hour address to India Today, according to the latest register of MPs interests.
Transport and accomodation for the event in New Delhi were also provided to Mr Johnson by local firm, Living Media India limited.
Ten days later, the Uxbridge and South Ruislip MP banked another £38,250 plus VAT for a two-and-a-half hour engagement with banking giant Citigroup.
It means Mr Johnson received over £160,000 in March - more than the Prime Minister's yearly salary.
Since stepping down from Cabinet in July last year in protest at Theresa May's handling of Brexit, Mr Johnson has made the most of relaxed earnings rules for backbench MPs.
The Tory leadership hopeful collects an extra £275,000 a year for his weekly column in the Daily Telegraph, which he frequently uses to criticise the Government's approach to the Brexit negotiations.
And in addition to his yearly parliamentary salary of £79,468, Mr Johnson earned another £51,250 in February from Irish firm Pendulum events for a speech in Dublin.
But the disclosure follows a savaging from MPs earlier this month after Mr Johnson failed to register his part-ownership in a Somerset property with the Commons expense watchdog until almost a year after the deadline.
Members of the Committee on Standards said Mr Johnson had shown an "over-casual attitude towards obeying the rules of the House" and ordered him to be re-schooled on the expenses process.
Mr Johnson was gifted a 20% ownership in the property in January 2018 but failed to register it - and rental income he received from it - with parliamentary watchdogs until January 2019.
He told Commons bosses he misunderstood rules which say land or property worth more than £100,000 and rental income of more than £10,000 a year must be registered within 28 days.
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