Blairs secured home loan on £20m earnings estimate

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The Independent
By Robert Verkaik, Legal Affairs Correspondent
Published : 06 November 2004

Details of how Tony and Cherie Blair managed to bankroll the purchase of their new £3.6m home in London have emerged in documents obtained by The Independent.

Papers filed with the Land Registry in Harrow, north-west London, show that the Blairs' mortgage deal was arranged by the Cheltenham & Gloucester building society, one of the few UK lenders willing to grant multimillion-pound mortgages on the basis of a client's "affordability" rather than annual income. The Blairs' decision to opt for the C&G helps answer the question of how they were able to secure such a big mortgage with only modest savings.

The title documents for the house in Connaught Square, Bayswater, also confirm the sale price as being £3.6m, paid to an art historian, Roger Bevan, on 2 September this year.

Sources close to Downing Street say the Prime Minister managed to negotiate an advantageous deal by claiming that he could earn up to £20m within five years of leaving 10 Downing Street. A "tacit agreement" with a publisher for a seven-figure book deal is said to have helped convince the building society that he was a safe risk.

More:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=580007

£20 million within 5 years? Isn't that called the Icarus Syndrome?
I'd give him 30 years in Belmarsh jail, with all his assets frozen and redistributed to to families of soldiers killed in Iraq........

[Old and In the Way]

1. He's got a standing offer to join Carlyle Group.

That's how the BFEE does foreign policy these days.

[Logansquare]

2. Yes, his reward for being a good puppie n/t

[Mizmoon]

3. Yes - John Major was in

so why not Tony?

I'm so saddened to see a world figure I once so admired is really so filthy.

[AP]

7. That's such bullshit. He and his wife earning 4mil a year over five years

considering they're both lawyers, and will no doubt write books, is not a stretch.

[cliss]

4. Let me guess. Tony & Cherie Blair

made a ton of money because they greased the wheels of the War Machinery and the Oil Interests of the World. Nice going, Tony.

Like the Japanese reporter who asked Blair when Mr. Kelley was found dead outside London, "Do you have blood on your hands, Mr. Blair?"

[daleo]

5. He will make big money doing testimonials for dog food commercials

"I am Tony Blair and I endorse this poodle chow."

[VegasWolf]

6. Ever seen Blair's home -- here it is, quite charming place to hang

your hat.