Former Chancellor George Osborne was paid over £320,000 for giving five speeches within a month

LONDON - Former Chancellor George Osborne was paid over £320,000 for giving just five speeches in the space of a month, according to the latest register of parliamentary interests.

Theresa May sacked Osborne as chancellor when she became prime minister in July, and the Conservative MP for Tatton, Cheshire, has since found a lucrative sideline in after-dinner speeches.

The register records 13.5 hours' speech work in the USA from September 27 to October 27, for which he received - or is due to receive - the sum of £320,438.

That is equivalent to an hourly rate of over £23,700.

One two-hour appearance in New York on October 27 earned Osborne £80,240 - more than his £74,962 MP annual salary. A pair of speeches given to financial services firm JP Morgan on October 4 and 5 netted the former chancellor over £140,000.

Osborne has recently signed up to one of the world's most prestigious speaking agency, the Washington Speakers Bureau, which already includes former prime ministers Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, and Sir John Major, according to the agency's website.

Blair has reportedly received up to £200,000 for individual speeches while Brown has charged sums of around £70,000, The Guardian reported in August.

The parliamentary register also shows that Michael Gove, the former justice minister who Theresa May also sacked, will earn £150,000 a year for writing a weekly column in the Times newspaper.

Former Deputy PM Nick Clegg, meanwhile, received nearly £11,000 for a 30-minute keynote speech at a London law firm.