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06th Feb 2019

Boris Johnson earned £51,250 for giving a single speech last month

Alan Loughnane

Boris Johnson made loads of money by delivering speech in Dublin

Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson was paid £51,250 for his speech last month at the Pendulum business empowerment conference in Dublin, it has been revealed

The latest register of MPs’ financial interests showed that Johnson received the enormous sum from the Irish firm Pendulum Events for his speech.

Johnson’s appearance at the Summit consisted of a 54 minute speech to the assembled crowd, an on-stage interview with Irish broadcaster RTÉ’s Bryan Dobson as well as some meet and greet opportunities with VIPs.

The interview with Dobson was strained as Johnson was quizzed on incorrect statements he made during the Brexit referendum, culminating in a testy exchange.

Dobson asked Johnson whether he knew the value of Northern Ireland exports to the Republic, with Johnson responding, “It can only go up.”

At this point, Johnson snatched Dobson’s notes for the interview and read through them on stage before remarking they were “heavily scripted”.

But Dobson very quickly responded, to the delight of the crowd: “I’ll let you keep that. You might find it useful.”