Tony Blair sets up Mayfair-based investment services firm

Tony Blair has recruited senior financiers and set up a company able to provide investment services to funds and individuals. The former prime minister's Mayfair-based firm has been authorised by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

The move could pave the way for another extension of Blair's business activities - which are thought to have earned him more than £20m since leaving Downing Street three years ago.

Blair's spokesman dismissed the idea that he was planning to create a bank or finance house as "fatuous". FSA documents show Firerush Ventures No 3 will trade as Tony Blair Associates, and is permitted to "arrange deals in investments" for clients.

It is not, however, allowed to hold client money – meaning it cannot carry out many traditional banking functions.

Financiers Varun Chandra and Mark Labovitch have been registered with the FSA to act on behalf of Firerush, along with some of Blair's long-term aides, including his former chief-of-staff, Jonathan Powell, and Catherine Rimmer, who worked in the Downing Street research unit.

Blair's spokesman said: "The very idea that Tony Blair is starting a bank or finance house for the super-rich is fatuous ... As we explained at the time, FSA approval was simply sought out of an abundance of caution ... Tony Blair Associates provides strategic advice on a commercial and pro-bono basis, on political and economic trends and governmental reform."

Last week, Blair announced he was donating proceeds estimated at £5m from his forthcoming memoirs, A Journey, to the Royal British Legion

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/aug/23/tony-blair-sets-up-mayfair-investment-firm


"The very idea..." What him? Tsk! Surely not! Perish the thought

Presumably, he was he waiting for a Tory government to generate the right business climate?

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