DESPERATE DAVE
EXPOSED: Cameron’s 62 messages to former colleagues pleading for help for his now disgraced paymaster ... signed ‘Love Dc’
DAVID Cameron texted ministers and officials 62 times as he desperately lobbied for Greensill Capital, it was revealed yesterday.
The former prime minister also made 11 phone calls and sent 12 emails to some of the most senior figures in the Government and the Bank of England during the four-month bombardment.
He even turned to his former friend Michael Gove – with whom he fell out over Brexit – in his desperate bid to get the finance firm access to massive Covid-19 support loans.
Mr Cameron was a paid part-time senior adviser at Greensill Capital for two years and received share options that could have landed him a huge windfall if the firm had floated on the stock market, but he has said their value was ‘nowhere near’ the rumoured £42 million.
The former PM signed some of the messages ‘love Dc’, claimed he was ‘riding to the rescue’ with his financier boss Lex Greensill and described the now-collapsed firm as a ‘British success story’.
Far more comprehensive than the information previously released by HM Treasury and the Bank, the messages were published by the Treasury select committee ahead of Mr Cameron’s highly anticipated appearance tomorrow in front of MPs examining his lobbying for Greensill Capital last year and the firm’s recent demise.
Mr Cameron was introduced to Mr Greensill when he was in Downing Street by then Cabinet Secretary Jeremy Heywood, who had met him when they both worked at the investment bank Morgan Stanley. The Aus
‘I am riding to the rescue with my friend Lex’
tralian became a business adviser to the Government and hired Mr Cameron two years after he left No 10. Just before the pandemic struck, Mr Cameron and Mr Greensill met Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, and they went on a ‘desert camping trip’ together.
The messages show that Mr Cameron’s approaches began early on March 5 last year, with a text message to Sir Tom Scholar – the most senior civil servant in the Treasury and well known to Mr Cameron since he had served as his main adviser on international affairs in Downing Street.
The former PM wrote, ‘hope you are still alive and well’ before asking for a phone number for one of the Bank’s deputy governors, Sir Jon Cunliffe. He also asked the Perces manent Secretary, ‘can I give you lunch once the budget is done’ before signing off ‘Love Dc’.
Minutes later, Mr Cameron was emailing Sir Jon and arranging for him to phone him. The following day he was texting Sir Tom again and boasting: ‘I am riding to the rescue with Supply Chain Finance with my friend Lex Greensill.’ He added that he hoped to see Sir Tom with Chancellor Rishi Sunak ‘for an elbow bump or foot tap’.
Mr Cameron texted Bank boss Sir Jon as he had ‘tried to call but line busy’, then emailed him to arrange a meeting. Ten days later he texted Sir Tom to say he was ‘thinking of you in these impossibly difficult times’ and ‘ hope you are staying calm’, as he sent him Greensill’s request for the Bank to buy billions of pounds worth of its bonds.
On April 2, he told Sir Tom, ‘one last point then I promise I will stop annoying you’ as he highlighted Greensill’s early payment deal with NHS pharmacies.
But the next day he texted him again to say he was ‘genuinely baffled’ that the firm had been rejected from joining the Bank’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility – which would have given it the ability to make £200 million loans to businesses rather than its upper limit of £50 million – and complained that the Treasury’s decision ‘seems bonkers’. He concluded: ‘Am now calling CX [Chancellor Mr Sunak], Gove, everyone.’
True to his word, within ten minutes he was WhatsApping Mr Sunak about the ‘nuts’ decision to reject Greensill, which he described as a ‘British Fintech success story’. Continuing a mammoth day of lobbying on April 3, Mr Cameron also texted, emailed and called No 10 adviser Sheridan Westlake, saying: ‘Dc here. There is a looming problem you can help solve.’
On the same day, Mr Cameron texted, phoned and emailed Treasury minister Jesse Norman, as well as contacting ministers John Glen and Mr Gove.
He told his former friend Mr Gove, now in the Cabinet Office: ‘I know you are manically busy – and doing a great job, by the way (this is bloody hard and I think the team is coping extremely well).’ He said he had arranged a phone call with the Chancellor and asked: ‘If I am still stuck, can I call you then? Thanks!’
Carrying on into the evening, before ringing him the next day, he told Mr Sunak: ‘You are doing a great job – keep going!’
After his conversation with the Chancellor early on April 4, Mr Cameron started texting Sir Tom again to say they had enjoyed a ‘good chat’. But he wanted Sir Tom to have ‘one more conversation’ with Mr Greensill and in the next few days kept texting him to ask ‘anything to report’.
Mr Cameron had a phone chat with the Treasury’s top two civil servants on April 7 and immediately told the Chancellor about the ‘excellent call’. But three weeks later he was messaging Mr Sunak again to complain the ‘situation is still stuck’ and asked: ‘Could you try and give it another nudge over the finish line?’
He continued to message and call the Chancellor into May, asking ‘for the last time, I promise’ for officials to look at Greensill’s plans again. In June, he moved on to business minister Nadhim Zahawi, telling him he had been ‘very solid on the media’ before asking him for a phone number for Richard Sharp, a banker and Tory donor who was then an unpaid adviser to the ChanPAGE cellor and is now BBC chairman.
To Sir Tom Scholar, Permanent Secretary at HM Treasury: March 5, 2020, 9.35am
Hope you are still alive and well. Three questions: is Sir Jon C still at the bank? Do you have a number? Can I give you lunch once the budget is done? Love Dc
To Sir Jon Cunliffe, Deputy Governor at the Bank of England:
March 7, 6.50pm
Jon, tried to call but line busy. No worries. Not urgent. Easy to speak next week. If Monday is convenient, give me a couple of times and I will call. All good wishes. Dc
To Chancellor Rishi Sunak: April 3, 3.22pm
Rishi, David Cameron here. Can I have a very quick word at some point? Call any time on this number. HMT are refusing to extend CCFF [Covid Corporate Financing Facility] to include supply chain finance, which is nuts as it pumps billons of cheap credit into SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises]. Greensill Capital, a British Fintech success story (who I help) are the champions of this. Think there is a simple misunderstanding that I can explain. Thanks. Dc
To Sheridan Westlake, Downing Street adviser: April 3, 3:56pm
Sheridan. DC here. Could you give me a quick call. There is a looming problem you can help solve... all good wishes Dc
To Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove: April 3, 4.26pm
I know you are manically busy – and doing a great job, by the way (this is bloody hard and I think the team is coping extremely well). But do you have a moment for a word? I am on this number and v free. All good wishes Dc
To Business Minister Nadhim Zahawi: June 14, 12:14pm
Hi there. Well done with keeping going in the midst of all this. You’ve been v solid on the media. Lex Greensill – who I work with – says you are being v helpful over HMT [HM Treasury] and CBILS [Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme] programme. Would it help if I pinged a message to Richard Sharp? I used to see him a bit in early leadership days but haven’t so much recently so don’t have his number