MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Wall Street bank job for Tony Blair, will continue Mideast role

Blair 'excited' by bank role

Tony Blair is to take a job with a major Wall Street bank which is likely to earn him around £500,000 a year. The former Prime Minister will work part-time providing political and strategic advice to JP Morgan in the first of a number of similar positions in the private sector.

He said last night that he would probably agree to "a small handful" of similar appointments. He is also on course to earn up to £5 million from his memoirs which are expected to be published in 2009 or 2010. "I have always been interested in commerce and the impact of globalisation," he said. "Nowadays the intersection between politics and the economy in different parts of the world, including the emerging markets, is very strong." JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon said he had personally phoned Mr Blair, adding: "I went to visit him and we hit it off." Mr Dimon said Mr Blair would be "enormously valuable" to the company. "There are only a handful of people in the world who have the knowledge and relationships that he has," said the banking chief. Since leaving office, Mr Blair has been special envoy to the Middle East for the 'Quartet' group – the United Nations, US, EU and Russia – a role which is unpaid. However his cost and expenses are shared between the four countries, and four staff from the Foreign Office have been seconded to his team. He also speaks on the international lecture tour. Some of his appearances are unpaid but others command fees of around £100,000. The ex-premier follows in the footsteps of world and UK leaders who have earned very much more in "retirement" than they ever did in office. His predecessor, John Major, and former US President George Bush were advisers to a US private equity firm, and Margaret Thatcher won huge fees for speeches made around the world. There has also been widespread speculation that Mr Blair will eventually take up a political role in the European Union and he will share a platform this weekend with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris. The ex-PM is planning to create an inter-faith foundation and backing a sports trust close to his old Sedgefield constituency.