Corporate solicitors help Tony Blair keep finances under wraps

News that former Prime Minister Tony Blair will donate proceeds from his forthcoming autobiography to the Royal British Legion has brought back into focus the complex structure of his personal finances which have been organised by his corporate solicitors and accountants.

A loophole in UK company law has allowed for only restricted accounts for his companies to be published.

According to newspaper reports, Tony Blair has six companies registered in his name, all of which have names beginning with Windrush or Firerush. Although two of them have declared company accounts, the other four are limited partnerships or limited liability partnerships, which do not have to file full accounts.

He has a limited partnership, Windrush Ventures No 3 LP, which would normally have to disclose its figures but a second partnership, Firerush, is one of its notional partners and money can be transferred between the two without necessarily being revealed.

Tony Blair Associates (TBA), which is the former politician's umbrella business company, has been registered with the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and there has been press speculation that he is intending to create a bank or corporate finance vehicle.

Documents with the FSA show that Firerush Ventures No 3, trading as Tony Blair Associates, is allowed to arrange deals in investments for clients.

A spokesman for Mr Blair, who was a lawyer before entering Parliament, denied any form of banking service provision by TBA was planned.

He said, "The very idea that Tony Blair is starting a bank or finance house for the super-rich is fatuous ... As we explained at the time, FSA approval was simply sought out of an abundance of caution ... Tony Blair Associates provides strategic advice on a commercial and pro-bono basis, on political and economic trends and governmental reform."

Mr Blair, whose commercial activities are believed to have earned him more than £20m in the three years since he left the Government, has a Mayfair, London, office with a staff approaching 200. They include workers for his charity interests as well as political and economic advisers, financiers and corporate solicitors.