Liz prepares for life after No10: Truss steps out in shades amid row over her £115k-a-year ‘golden goodbye’ – but experts say she is unlikely to ‘make millions’ with a book deal or on after-dinner circuit
MailOnline
A casual-looking Liz Truss headed to Chequers in black Ray-Ban sunglasses today as one of the UK’s leading brand experts predicted her earning power when she leaves No 10 will be far worse than her predecessors because her 44 days as Prime Minister were a ‘gigantic car crash she has engineered’.
The outgoing Tory leader is off to the PM’s country home with her husband Hugh O’Leary for her last weekend in power as the row over her proposed £19,000 payoff plus an allowance of up to £115,000-a-year for life rumbles on.
As she prepares for life after No 10, PR guru Mark Borkowski predicted she will not make millions because she is already a byword for ‘failure’ not helped by her ‘lacking personality’ and being a ‘poor communicator’. Reality TV, toe-curling adverts or being a panto villain are now her best options to make cash, he said.
He said: ‘This is a gigantic car crash which she has engineered. She cannot make millions after this mess’.
Ten days ago Boris Johnson, who personal wealth was hit by divorce in 2020, earned a reported $150,000 for a short speech in the US. He is expected to earn £3million-a-year from book deals and events and has just bought a mansion in South London for a seven-figure sum.
Tony Blair, Britain’s richest former PM, is estimated to be worth £100million, with Theresa May reportedly charging £110,000-a-speech taking her personal wealth to £10million. Gordon Brown is said to be worth £15million and David Cameron £38million, bolstered by the fortune of his independently wealthy wife Samantha.
But Mr Borkowski told MailOnline today that Liz Truss will not make millions from lucrative book deals, speaking tours and business lunches like her predecessors.
A career in reality TV or lectures and literature on ‘lessons of failure’ are the most likely routes available to Britain’s shortest serving Prime Minister in history. Advertising products while lampooning her own disastrous premiership would also be on the table.
‘I believe as time passes we might see Truss as a personality popping up in surprising places. But what is her brand? I’m sure she’d be a booking for I’m A Celeb. There is always pantomime’, Mr Borkowski said.
‘The issue is she lacks personality. She is poor communicator. Sadly the failure stats are not in her favour. However reinvention could come by some surprising channels. I could see a quirky ad campaign. She might have the stuff for self-deprecation – only time will tell. There are huge lessons in failure more potent than success which she could leverage’.
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