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Tony Blair to close commercial enterprises to focus on charity work

21 September 2016 08:28 (UTC +04:00)

Baku – APA-Economics. Tony Blair has said he will close his commercial enterprises and focus on not-for-profit activities, the Guardian reported.

The former prime minister’s announcement to staff will most likely be seen as an acknowledgement that his commercial activities have attracted controversy and led to criticism that his political and commercial interests, especially in the Middle East, were too entwined.

He told staff at his Grosvenor Square office: “I want now to concentrate the vast bulk of my time on the not-for-profit work that we do. De facto, this has been the case in the past two years but we need to reflect this change in the way we are structured”.

“To this end, we are going to make the following changes: we will close down Tony Blair Associates and wind up the Firerush and Windrush structures. I will retain a small number of personal consultancies for my income, but 80% of my time will be pro bono on the not-for-profit side”.

He said the substantial reserves that Tony Blair Associates has accumulated will be gifted to the not-for-profit work. All of his activities ranging from work on African governance, counter-extremism, sport and the future of politics would now be placed under one roof.

In a model that the recently retired David Cameron may consider, Blair spent the nine years since his withdrawal from frontline politics building a group of organisations that employed about 200 people and operated in more than 20 different countries.