Ex-UK leader Rishi Sunak earns up to $10,200 an hour advising tech and banks

Britain's former prime minister is being paid like a top consultant. Rishi Sunak, who led the UK from 2022 to 2024, advises Anthropic, Microsoft and Goldman Sachs. Based on the hours he reported, he earns roughly $7,000 to $10,200 an hour from them. Microsoft pays the most per hour. Anthropic pays the least of the three, and it pays in company shares.

What the register shows

Sunak is still a member of Parliament. UK lawmakers must list outside income in a public register of MPs' financial interests. The latest version came out Monday. It shows Sunak earned more than £2.2 million, or over $2.9 million, from the three advisory jobs. The register also lists estimated hours, which is how the hourly figures can be worked out.

The three jobs

• Anthropic: shares worth £373,000 ($495,000) for a one-year deal, about 70 hours, roughly $7,000 an hour.
• Microsoft: £741,735 a year (almost $1 million) for about 96 hours, roughly $10,200 an hour.
• Goldman Sachs: nearly £1.1 million ($1.5 million) a year for about 175 hours, roughly $8,300 an hour.

Anthropic is an AI company. Its pay came as equity, meaning a small ownership stake. The $495,000 figure is what the shares were worth when his contract began. Sunak started both the Anthropic and Microsoft roles last October. He began his career as a Goldman analyst before earning an MBA at Stanford.

Where the money goes

Sunak donated these earnings to charity. He and his wife, Akshata Murthy, set up The Richmond Project, which works to improve people's numeracy skills. The couple is jointly worth about $750 million, according to The Sunday Times Rich List. Much of that comes from Murthy, whose father founded the Indian tech firm Infosys.

He also writes a column for The Sunday Times and gives that pay to charity too. It is far smaller. The register shows £28,500 a quarter for five hours of work a week, about $580 an hour.

What is not known

The register gives hours and pay, not duties. It does not say what advice Sunak gives these companies. The hours are estimates, so the hourly rates are approximate. Sunak's office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.