TONY BLAIR is busy preparing for talks in the Middle East on a subject of global importance. The subject is not the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but climate change, in a speech to be delivered to a conference in Abu Dhabi sponsored by a Swiss bank.

It is just one of many money-spinning engagements that are expected to take his earnings to £15m by July, two years since his departure from Downing Street.

Blair is now facing serious questions over his commitment as a Middle East envoy to the quartet of the United Nations, United States, Europe and Russia.

In a significant measure of unease, a UN ambassador who sat on the security council until just a few days ago has publicly expressed his frustration over Blair’s conduct.

Dumisani Kumalo, South Africa’s ambassador to the UN, said that Blair was asked last October to address the council on his progress, but has not yet done so, nor has he set foot in Gaza.

“We asked the council to invite Tony Blair to report to the council, like all the other envoys of the secretary-general report to the security council,” said Kumalo.

“It became a question of when Blair would come to New York. The last we heard is that he would come [this year] . . . you have to understand there was controversy over this.

“We wanted to know what Blair was doing in Gaza . . . we need to know what the quartet envoy is doing. He has never been to Gaza. It is now three months [since Blair was asked].”

Last week Gordon Brown let slip that his long-term rival was still on holiday - prompting Blair to embark on a flurry of broadcast interviews.

Although Blair’s spokesman confirmed that the former prime minister had not been to Gaza, he has met Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, and Salam Fayyad, the prime minister, since the start of the current conflict.

While performing his duties in the Middle East, Blair holds court at the American Colony hotel in east Jerusalem. He hires an entire floor of the hotel at a cost to the public purse of about £700,000 a year.

Despite the fighting in Gaza, Blair is expected to be awarded the presidential medal of freedom by George W Bush at the White House on Tuesday.

According to details of his schedule obtained by The Sunday Times, Blair’s upcoming commitments include the climate conference in Abu Dhabi on January 21, a university talk near Boston on February 2 and a trip to a California theatre where tickets cost up to $380 each.

Blair ranks as the most expensive speaker in the world. His agents at the Washington Speakers Bureau typically charge $250,000 (£164,000) for a 90-minute speech.

He is also paid about £2m a year by JP Morgan Chase and a further £500,000 a year by Zurich Financial Services. The deal for his memoirs is worth a reported £4.6m.

On Christmas Eve Tony and Cherie Blair invited 100 neighbours for drinks at their grade I-listed home, which they bought in May for £5.75m. South Pavilion in Wotton Underwood, Buckingham-shire, is the former home of Sir John Gielgud, the actor.

RICH PICKINGS
- Bill and Hillary Clinton earned $109m in the eight years after they left the White House. Bill Clinton earned $475,000 in a single day from two speeches.

- Sir John Major made £1m a year from dinner talks and directorships after leaving office.

- Baroness Thatcher received a £3.5m advance from HarperCollins for two volumes of her autobiography The Downing Street Years.

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