No need to budget: George Osborne pocketing £13k a day for part-time job

As he left the Commons chamber after the Budget, George Osborne could be seen tapping his successor Philip Hammond on the shoulder and giving him a thumbs-up.

And well he might give a thumbs-up, because it was revealed on Budget day that the former Chancellor is now earning £650,000 a year for four days a month in one job and £800,000 for speeches.

On the morning of the Budget, Mr Osborne tweeted: "Good luck Philip with the first of what I hope will be many successful budgets. Standing there with that red box is quite a moment. Enjoy it!"

No doubt Mr Osborne misses standing outside 11 Downing Street with the Budget red box. But he must be enjoying the £1.5m he is now trousering since Theresa May sacked him last July.

But the bad news for Mr Osborne is that his successor’s Budget increase in National Insurance contributions for the self-employed from 9 to 11% could cost him an extra £13,000 on his £650,000-a-year job.

In the latest register of MPs’ interests, the former Chancellor declares four new payments from outside earnings on top of his £75,000 salary as a backbencher.

:: First is the £650,000 a year for advising investment firm BlackRock for 48 days’ work, which works out at £13,541 a day. "I expect to be paid £162,500 a quarter in return for a quarterly commitment of 12 days," Mr Osborne reveals. "I also expect to receive registrable equity in BlackRock in the future."

:: Second, he has disclosed a payment of £51,082 due from the Flanders Chamber of Commerce and Industry for a speech on 7 February, which took up three-and-a-half hours of his time. The speech, in Antwerp, was doubly controversial, because besides the large fee he earned he also missed key votes on the Article 50 Brexit bill in the Commons and broke a three-line whip.

:: Third was another fee of £15,081 expected from Lloyds Bank International for giving a speech on 6 February, although he says that money will be donated to a charity in his Tatton constituency.

:: And fourth, he reveals he has become Kissinger Fellow at the McCain Institute in Washington, which he says provides him with £120,212 "to meet stipend costs and the costs of travel, accommodation and research support".

Since Theresa May sacked him, Mr Osborne has made 15 speeches – many to Wall Street and City financial institutions – outside Parliament, leading to accusations that he has been cashing in on his six years as Chancellor.

Last month, while speaking on a panel as chairman of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, Mr Osborne was challenged on whether his paid work outside the Commons, including BlackRock, represented a conflict of interest.

He replied: "I was Chancellor of the Exchequer, working seven days a week, and now I’m a backbench MP I made a decision to remain in politics and public life because I wanted to go on contributing to the discussion about helping to improve our country.

"This week is not a bad snapshot of my life. On Monday, I was in New York accepting a Kissinger fellowship at the McCain Institute, then on Wednesday I was speaking in the House of Commons about Europe, and here I am with my colleagues promoting the North of England, and later you can come and join me in Knutsford in my constituency.

"That seems to me a pretty varied and interesting way to spend my time and hopefully make a contribution to our national life through things like the Northern Powerhouse Partnership."

When Mr Osborne’s job with BlackRock was announced, it said he would "provide perspectives on European politics and policy, Chinese economic reform, and trends such as low yields and longevity and their impact on retirement planning".

(c) Sky News 2017: No need to budget: George Osborne pocketing £13k a day for part-time job