Adviser to JPMorgan, Middle East envoy and ex-PM, Tony Blair is back stirring up the election debate. He returned to his old constituency to give the Tories a tongue lashing and charm the faithful. But pundits don’t seem to know if he is a liability or an asset. He is undoubtably still popular with some middle-class labour voters but genuine socialists turned off him in office and are unlikely to warm to his  new jet-set lifestlyle. Conservatives never stopped despising the man (even if they admired his political ability). So in such an uncertain political environment what is Blair’s interest?

Investors like to consider alignment of interests when they look at potential investments so where’s Tony’s? He’s not looking for a seat in Parliament obviously. Brown’s re-election for Brown’s sake. Hmmm unlikely. The New Labour legacy – it has sustained serious damage in the last year or two, so perhaps. And what about money?

Well, he wasn’t getting paid for his Trimdon Labour Club speech but fellow millionaire Lib Dem Chris Huhne raised a cynical but obvious point on Newsnight last night. Tony’s bankability is probably more valuable whilst his party still runs the country. Which must amount to an extra few million reasons that would make another Labour win worth his while. A new study has shown that you only feel satisfyingly rich if you are richer than your friends and Tony clearly enjoys being rich. Given his preferred company is the likes of Jamie Dimon and oil billionnaires these days, every million counts.