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Tony Blair starts $1M bank job

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  • Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to take up job at JP Morgan
  • One consultant told FT Blair would likely be paid up to $1 million a year
  • He will advise the bank on global political and strategic issues
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who left office last June, has taken up a part-time job with a Wall Street bank on an estimated $1 million salary.

JP Morgan Chase did not say how much Blair will make in the part-time position.

Blair will work with JP Morgan Chase, a firm with assets of $1.5 trillion and operations in more than 50 countries. He will advise the bank on global political and strategic issues, a company statement said.

"We operate our business all over the world, and Tony Blair will bring our leaders and clients a unique and invaluable global perspective that is especially critical in turbulent times like these," said Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of the company, in the statement.

Neither Blair nor the bank would say how much the former PM would be paid. A New York recruitment consultant though told the Financial Times that the job was likely to be worth more than $987,000 (£500,000) a year.

Advisory jobs such as the one Blair has accepted are popular among former world leaders. His predecessor as prime minister, John Major, took a position with the Carlyle Group, a private investment house, as did former U.S. President George H.W. Bush.

Blair left 10 Downing Street in June after a decade as prime minister, and took an appointment as a special envoy for the Middle East Quartet, which includes the United States, the United Nations, Russia and the European Union. The quartet hopes to re-energize the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians.

During his tenure as prime minister, Blair's Labour Party won three straight general elections. In addition, peace came to Northern Ireland and the British economy boomed.

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But the Iraq war and several domestic controversies damaged Blair's reputation.

Before his re-election in 2005, Blair had vowed to serve a full third term, but political infighting within Labour ranks culminated in a political coup that prompted him to leave office early. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

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