It’s an unfortunate fact of birth, forever being referred to as the son of former Prime Minister Tony Blair.
But perhaps Euan Blair’s latest achievement rather takes the edge off: by ignoring his famous father’s education policy, the 38-year-old is now not only three times richer than his dad, with an estimated fortune of £160m compared to his father’s reported £44m, but now also owns a grander house. By quite a way.
According to reports, the Yale graduate and former Morgan Stanley banker has just bought and moved into a £22m, five-storey townhouse in west London, featuring an “iceberg basement” with a swimming pool, 50-foot reception room and a lift for his fleet of expensive cars. The palatial seven-bedroom pad is reportedly more than double the value of his father’s £10m London pad.
So how has he done it? In short: by encouraging millennials not to go to university – in direct contradiction to his father’s promise to help half of young adults get a degree in 1999. His tech education startup, Multiverse, matches young people with apprenticeships at leading employers from Google to Depop after co-founder Euan admitted his own ancient history degree from Bristol “taught him nothing”.
The happily-married former US Congress intern has previously spoken about how his father’s vow had not delivered on social mobility, saying: “When you look at the 50 percent target, the belief was the more people go to university, the more people can access great opportunities, the more we would transition people fairly from full time education to full time employment.
“It has not worked out that way,” he continued, adding: “getting a degree does not guarantee you a job … even from supposedly top universities.”