Boris Johnson is now paid £275,000 a year for writing a newspaper column
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Version 0 of 1. Boris Johnson is now paid £275,000 a year for writing a weekly column in the Daily Telegraph newspaper, according to official records. The Mayor of London and MP caused controversy in 2009 when he described the time he took to write the column as “chickenfeed”. At that time he was reported to have received £250,000 for the enterprise, to which he says he dedicates ten hours a month. But at some point since 2009 the Mayor appears to have had a £25,000 pay rise – roughly the average UK full time salary. The figures were disclosed in Parliament’s latest Register of Interests, where MPs record payments they receive from outside organisations. “Until further notice, from June 2015 I receive £22,916.66 a month for writing articles for the Telegraph Media Group Ltd, 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 0DT. Hours: 10 hrs a month. (Registered 13 July 2015),” the register says. Mr Johnson is paid the £2,291 hourly rate on top of his Mayor of London salary of £143,911 and newly raised MP salary of £74,000. The payment for writing for the newspaper also amounts to about £23 a word for the roughly 1,000 word articles. The annual figure is also more than £218,000 of public money the Mayor ordered spent on water cannon that police will now not be allowed to use because of a ruling by the Home Secretary. Last week former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond demanded that the Mayor be personally "surcharged" the amount of money to make up the cost to taxpayers. |