George Osborne to be paid £650,000 for working one day a week

George Osborne has declared a salary of £650,000 a year for working just four days a month at BlackRock, the world’s biggest fund management firm, as well as almost £800,000 for speeches to financiers.

The former chancellor’s earnings were revealed in the latest register of MPs’ interests, which shows that he will make more than eight times his salary as a backbencher as an adviser to the Wall Street firm.

He was criticised for taking the job earlier this year, because BlackRock may have benefited from reforms to pension rules made while he was chancellor.

The Tory MP, who was sacked last July by the prime minister, Theresa May, following the EU referendum, will make the equivalent of £13,000 per day as an adviser to BlackRock, in addition to being eligible for share rewards.

Osborne has made 15 speeches - many to Wall Street and City financial institutions - since July, leading to accusations that he has been making private money out of his six-year stint as chancellor.

Last month, he justified the decision to take on multiple roles while also being an MP, saying his work represented a “varied and interesting” contribution to national life.

While speaking on a panel as chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, Osborne was asked whether his paid work outside the House of Commons, including BlackRock, represented a conflict of interest. He said: “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 the job was announced, BlackRock said their new recruit 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”.