Boris Johnson reveals how big is advance was for forthcoming memoir

Boris Johnson has disclosed that he has received an advance of more than £500,000 for his forthcoming memoirs.

The former prime minister’s latest entry in the Register of Members’ Interests states he “received £510,000 as an advance on an upcoming book yet to be published”.

Publishers HarperCollins announced earlier this month they had acquired the rights for what was described as a prime ministerial memoir “like no other”.

The Government now expects to pay up to £222,000 in legal fees for Boris Johnson’s defence against allegations he misled Parliament over “partygate”.

Solicitors firm Peters and Peters were awarded a contract worth £129,700 in August 2021 to provide Mr Johnson with advice during the investigation into his conduct by the House of Commons Privileges Committee.

At a meeting of the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee on Thursday, Cabinet Office permanent secretary Alex Chisholm revealed that the amount had since been increased to £222,000.

Mr Chisholm said the amount had been increased due to the length of the Privileges Committee inquiry, and could rise again depending on how long the inquiry takes.

He said: “At the moment we have estimated that it would be up to a figure of £200,000, which has been published, £222,000 to be precise.

“We hope and expect that will be a maximum figure but obviously we don’t want to anticipate and certainly could not regulate the conduct of the committee, which is entirely up to them.”