Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair Says He Is Closing Down His Business Empire

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has announced that he will be closing down his business interests with Tony Blair Associates. Also the statement issued speaks of Blair also winding down the "Firerush and Windrush structures for which he has received massive criticism relating to the profits generated from consultancy work done for foreign governments and multi-national corporations.

Mr Blair's full statement on closing down Tony Blair Associates is presented below:

Over the past nine years we have built a group of organisations employing around 200 people and working in more than 20 different countries round the world.

It is time to take this to a new level.

As I indicated last December at our annual all staff meeting, I want to expand our activities and bring everything under one roof.

I also want now to concentrate the vast bulk of my time on the Not For Profit work which 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:

1. 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.

2. The substantial reserves that TBA has accumulated will be gifted to the Not For Profit work.

3. We will bring our organisations under one roof and are in the process of obtaining new premises to do so.

There will be further announcements as we implement these changes.