Blair is the 'highest-paid public speaker in world'

TONY Blair is estimated to have earned £12 million since leaving No10.

The former prime minister is believed to have agreed an advance of around £4.6 million for his memoirs to be published by Random House. But his biggest income is reported to be from his popularity on the international public speaking circuit.

One source in the speaking industry put the figure at more than £5.3 million, adding: "He is now probably the highest-paid public speaker in the world."

Washington Speakers Bureau has a two-year waiting list to book Mr Blair, according to the analysis of his earnings in The Times, with institutions prepared to pay up to £157,000 for a speech of around an hour and a half.

Private equity investor the Carlyle Group whose board has included former prime minister Sir John Major and the two presidents Bush is said to be keen to hire Mr Blair. Events include a conference of business experts in Europe in Paris next month, and a meeting in Dubai in February.

As a senior adviser to Wall Street bank JP Morgan Chase, Mr Blair is believed to earn up to £2 million a year, while his salary from Zurich Financial Services to work as an adviser on international politics and climate change is put at £500,000. As a former prime minister, he is entitled to a pension of £63,468 a year, as well as £84,000 to fund a private office. Mr Blair's spokesman disputed some of the figures but declined to comment on Mr Blair's personal finances.

The £12 million figure is six times more than he would have earned in his career as an MP. But questions are now being raised over whether Mr Blair's money-spinning activities are distracting from his work as the Middle East representative for the Quartet of America, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.

A UN official in Jerusalem said: "There is a general sense that he is not around." But Mr Blair's office strongly defended his devotion to boosting the Middle East peace process.

His spokesman stressed that no Quartet officials had suggested Mr Blair was not spending enough time working to bridge the divide between the Palestinians and Israel.

He added: "When Mr Blair took up the post, he said he would be spending at least a week a month in the region and that is exactly what he is doing."

The value of the Blairs' property portfolio has risen sharply over the years but will now be hit by the house price slump. Their South Pavilion country estate in Buckinghamshire, bought for £4 million in May, is estimated to have fallen in value to £3.76 million.

Their Connaught Square house, bought for £3.65 million in 2004, is still worth more with another house in the street going for £5.5 million a few months ago but its price will now be falling.

The Blairs are believed to have accepted an offer this month for £285,000 on one of the flats they bought in Park Row, Bristol, for £265,000 each six years ago. His Myrobella house in his former Sedgefield constituency was bought for £30,000 in 1983 and is now understood to have dropped in value by around £14,000 from last summer to £126,000.