Buccaneer
"BUCCANEER by Eric Paice. Published by Arrow Books 1980.
"Tony Blair is a gambler - and this time he is gambling on making enough money to buy a new aircraft before the old one falls apart."
Interesting choice of name for the main character, in light of subsequent events. Also, oddly, Eric Paice (and that exact spelling of Paice) is the name of the main villain in one of my favourite films of all time, "Get Carter."