Suella Braverman MP is the latest senior Conservative leader to cash in on international speaking engagements, it has emerged she has been paid almost £60,000 to speak around the world – the highest amount of any sitting MP.
The first records of financial interests of members of parliament show the former home secretary received £25,000 for speaking in South Korea in May and £20,000 for another speech in India in March.
Braverman also said he received £14,000 for an article he wrote in the Telegraph, and that the National Jewish Congress had paid for an all-expenses-paid trip to Israel, worth £27,800.
Last month Braverman said he received £10,800 for a five-hour talk to a London-based financial intelligence and risk management firm, and also received £6,500 in travel expenses from the Edmund Burke Foundation when he spoke in Washington.
Braverman had been hoping to become the next Conservative leader until recently and was the only Conservative leadership candidate to claim speaking income this year – Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverley and Robert Jenrick all held senior government positions and were therefore unable to take up outside work.
Former Prime Minister Liz Truss earned £250,000 in the year after she was ousted from Downing Street, including £80,000 for a single speech in Taipei, Taiwan.
Rishi Sunak, who resigned as chancellor last month while still a member of Parliament, has no speaking appointments planned this year.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared income of £4.8 million within the first six months of leaving Downing Street in 2023, including an advance of £2.5 million for unspecified speaking engagements.
On that same register of interests, Nigel Farage appears to be the highest-paid MP: the Reform UK leader declared that he received £97,900 for presentations and consultancy work from GB News, a channel co-owned by the hedge fund billionaire Paul Marshall.
In addition to his work for GB News, Farage received £16,597.22 from video app Cameo and £4,000 for writing articles for the Telegraph.
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The previous highest-paid MP was Geoffrey Cox, a Conservative member who also works as a lawyer, who received £293,400 in fees from law firm Withers and was also paid £379,000 in July by an Indian law firm for work between 2016 and 2018.
Both Braverman and Farage have been approached for comment.
