Former prime minister of UK will be forced to reveal their secret business relations with Azerbaijan
Tony Blair is to be challenged by parliament to come clean on his income and secretive financial empire amid claims he stands to earn millions of pounds advising the developers of a gas pipeline backed by the despotic regime of Azerbaijan, writes the British paper The Sunday Times.
“A parliamentary motion will be tabled this week calling for greater scrutiny of prime ministers’ financial interests and work for foreign states after they leave office,” the article reads. Blair has avoided any requirement to reveal details of his international consultancy work because he is neither an MP nor a member of the House of Lords. The article reads that the former prime ministers are required to seek advice only for a period of two years after they leave office on any appointments they wish to take up.
Blair clients have included Nursultan Nazarbayev, the autocratic president of Kazakhstan, where the former prime minister’s consultancy has been paid an estimated £8m a year, The Sunday Times reports.
In summer British media reported about the closed meetings of Prince Andrew with the executive director of BP Robert Dudley at Buckingham Palace. Over the past six years, Prince Andrew visited the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev eight times, which caused outrage in London.
In addition, in 2009, Blair took part in the ceremony of laying a foundation for Garadagh district of Baku AzMeCo plant. The British newspaper The Daily Telegraf reported that during the visit to Baku, former Prime Minister of Great Britain received 100,000 pounds (about 200 thousand dollars).
In December 2013 the leadership of BP signed a contract with Baku, which was the beginning of a project valued at $45 billion. We are talking about the pipeline, which will supply natural gas to the European market, the newspaper reminds.