SLEAZE PROBE
NO.10 LAUNCHES INQUIRY INTO DAVID CAMERON’S LOBBYING ACTIVITIES AS ROW ENGULFS MINISTERS
DOWNING STREET has ordered an independent investigation into the ‘cronyism’ scandal involving David Cameron. Ministers have been told to declare any contacts they had with the former PM or Greensill Capital, the scandal-hit financial firm he worked for as a lobbyist after leaving office.
Mr Cameron finally broke his silence on the controversy this week after a series of damaging stories about contacting top Tories – including chancellor Rishi Sunak – via text on behalf of Greensill, which collapsed last month. The Cabinet Office inquiry will be led by lawyer Nigel Boardman and is expected to report back ‘promptly’, Downing Street said. A spokesman told reporters yesterday: ‘There is significant interest in this matter, so the prime minister has called for the review to ensure government is completely transparent about such activities and that the public can see for themselves if good value was secured for taxpayers’ money.’ He added it ‘will also look at how contracts
were secured and how business representatives engaged with government’.
A spokesman for Mr Cameron said: ‘We welcome this inquiry and will be glad to take part.’
But former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown called for tougher rules to prevent ex-PMs lobbying within government, while shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves said: ‘This has all the hallmarks of another cover-up by the Conservatives.’
Two years after Mr Cameron left No.10 in 2016, he was hired by financier Lex Greensill – his former adviser in Downing Street. Newspaper reports revealed Mr Cameron texted Mr Sunak and other Treasury ministers on behalf of Greensill Capital in a government-backed Covid loans scheme, but his efforts were batted away by the government. It also emerged that he met health secretary Matt Hancock for a ‘private drink’ in 2019 to discuss a payment scheme for the NHS with an app developed by Greensill.
Mr Cameron said late on Sunday he was ‘breaking no codes of conduct and no government rules’.