It’s safe to say that most Conservative MPs will want to forget about 2022: three Prime Ministers, four Chancellors and nose-diving polls to boot. But for one MP at least, it wasn’t all bad. The Tories’ fortunes may have taken a drubbing, but unlike her party, Theresa May had a pretty successful year. Accounts published today show that in the year up until March 2022, the former PM’s eponymous company declared more than £1,186,000 in net assets – some £338,000 up on the previous twelve months.

It’s all thanks to the Maidenhead MP’s success on the speaking circuit, with her speeches regularly commanding six-figure sums. While her successors in No. 10 have spent the last few months either seeking a comeback (Boris) or casting shade at Rishi (Liz), good old Theresa and her staff have been happy to quietly count up the cash, which she declares in her regular entries to the register of interests. Documents released by the Office of Theresa May, which looks after her earnings, show that she has now increased her registered total equity by 40 per cent in just 12 months. Kerching!

Of course, such a busy calendar needs a team to keep the speech-making machine well oiled. Lady May has been on a bit of a hiring spree recently, doubling her total staff from two in 2021 to four now, including her. The ex-premier and ABBA devotee spends 24 hours a month doing such work related to speaking engagements, for which she earns a nifty £85,000 a year.

She may enjoy waltzing to ‘Dancing Queen’ but perhaps ‘Money, Money, Money’ is more appropriate?