WILLIAM HAGUE scooped up to £800,000 last year through directorships, speeches and newspaper columns - six times his income if he had made it to Downing Street.

The annual register of MPs' interests reveals the full extra-curricular earnings of the former Conservative leader, who is a favourite on the lucrative after-dinner circuit.

The MP for Richmond, North Yorkshire, registered no fewer than 46 speeches and "one man theatre shows" last year - worth up to £15,000 an appearance - in locations including Dublin and Portugal.

His income is topped up by the £200,000-a-year he is paid by the News of the World for a column, and serialisation rights for his biography of 19th Century prime minister Pitt the Younger.

Meanwhile, the register also reveals that Darlington MP Alan Milburn earned up to £85,000 in six months as a backbencher before returning to the Cabinet in September.

Newspaper articles brought in up to £20,000, and speeches - including one in southern France - up to £30,000, before Tony Blair persuaded Mr Milburn to run Labour's election campaign.

The register is also the first in which the Prime Minister has registered his £3.6m "retirement home" in Connaught Square, central London, a purchase announced last October.

Mr Blair has also logged his summer holiday at Sir Cliff Richard's villa in Barbados, stating he made a donation to a charity chosen by the singer "in lieu of the cost".

Ashok Kumar, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, registered the most overseas trips last year - to Syria, Botswana, Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

Vera Baird (Redcar and Cleveland) and Dari Taylor (Stockton South) went to the Falkland Islands, while Gerry Steinberg (Durham City) visited Gibraltar. Sir Stuart Bell (Middlesbrough) flew to Shanghai courtesy of Michelin, and Anne McIntosh (Vale of York) spent five days in South Africa, thanks to Nestle.

The Tory frontbencher was a guest of Network Rail at a "railway ball" and enjoys complimentary membership of the RAC in Pall Mall.

Bishop Auckland MP Derek Foster revealed he tops up his parliamentary income by up to £10,000 as a consultant to stationery firm 3M UK.

Michael Howard, as leader of the Opposition, earns £66,792 on top of his MPs' salary. He did, however, register the "gift of a Christmas hamper from His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei".