Ex Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who was re-employed by the Daily Telegraph after resigning from the Cabinet in July, receives an annual salary of £275,000 for his weekly column with the paper.
According to the latest Register of Members’ Financial Interests, published this month, Johnson spends ten hours a month writing his 1,100-word column for the right-leaning newspaper.
He is paid £22,916.66 per month, or £2,291.66 an hour.
The pay covers the period from 11 July this year – the same month he quit Prime Minister Theresa May’s Government – until 10 July 2019.
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Johnson claims in the register to have consulted the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments about his appointment to the Telegraph, but Acoba said no such application was received from the Tory MP in July.
Ministerial code states that former cabinet ministers are expected to wait a minimum of three months from their date of leaving office before taking up a business appointment.
Acoba confirmed no such application was received from Johnson and said he received a written reminder of the rules from the chair of the committee following his resignation, as is standard procedure.
Johnson has a long association with the Telegraph, previously working as its European Union correspondent and assistant editor.
Johnson has recently used his columns to attack the Prime Minister’s plans around Brexit, some of which have made the paper’s front page, as he vies for leadership of the Conservative Party and the Premiership.
Last month he came under fire for comparing Muslim women wearing burqas to “letter boxes” and “bank robbers”.
The Telegraph has announced plans to put more of its content behind a paywall, including Johnson’s columns, which he usually posts on his Facebook page, making them free to read.
In a bid to pull in more paying readers, The Telegraph will put more than a third of its content behind its partial paywall service, which charges readers £2 a week to read premium content, according to The Guardian.
This decision comes after the Telegraph saw profits almost halve to £13.7m last year. The title claims to have more than 2.5m registered customers.
The Telegraph’s new chief executive Nick Hugh has pledged to invest £10m in the organisation to “re-emphasise” quality journalism.
Picture: Reuters/Darren Staples
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