The latest set of abbreviated accounts filed with Companies House reveals nothing about the income
The latest set of abbreviated accounts filed with Companies House reveals nothing about the income and expenditure of the foundation, only that it ended the year 1993 with pounds 466,731 in cash and pounds 452,510 in assets.Even less is known about the charitable fund. Under regulations introduced by her government to cut red tape for small firms and preserve their competitive secrets, the foundation is not required to make full disclosure of its accounts. Its aim was to raise pounds 10m from Thatcher admirers across the globe, but the response has been comparatively disappointing – thanks to the recession, say her friends – so Lady Thatcher has tried to raise money herself from world tours.The foundation is a private company, which also has a charitable trust. This year, so far, she has visited Spain, the United States, Singapore, Italy, China, Hong Kong and Bahrain, and she is in Japan again now.Piecing together a total income is made doubly difficult because Lady Thatcher keeps part of the money for herself and donates part to the Margaret Thatcher Foundation, which was set up to promote her ideas around the world, particularly in Eastern Europe.
She has kept up a relentless pace of speeches to foreign business people since. And then there are her repeated forays on to the international speaking circuit, where she can command pounds 50,000 an hour; one engagement in New York earned her pounds 150,000 for a single speech.
Her first trip to Japan after leaving office, which was organised by Lord Archer, brought in around pounds 2m, according to informed sources. Her appointment as a non-executive director of the tobacco firm Philip Morris reportedly brings an annual pounds 550,000. Her memoirs, the second part of which begin newspaper serialisation tomorrow, have netted her more than pounds 3.2m. Today, estimates are that she has accumulated at least pounds 9.5m and has entered the league table of the richest women in Britain. Comprehensive figures, in the way of these things, are hard to come by Some indications have entered the public domain. If she was happy, that would be OK, but I suspect she isn’t.”.
Just how rich is Margaret Thatcher? When she was ousted as prime minister less than five years ago, she had no significant wealth. She hasn’t achieved as much after leaving office as she could have. The position she has adopted on Bosnia is maverick; it’s one the world does not want to hear. Instead she’s gone for the Rolls at the airport and the motorcade.”It’s disappointing. She has established no salon of new political thinkers, nor has she established herself as an elder statesman, making measured statements that influence world leaders. Nor has it dispensed the wide range of grants which were expected. “The truth is that it’s quite hard to spend it properly,” says Lord McAlpine, a trustee.
