Call to probe Cameron’s role in lobbying for bank access to loans
LABOUR WANTS an investigation into whether former Prime Minister David Cameron lobbied for a specialist bank, that has since gone bust, to handle extra Government-backed Covid loans.
Greensill Capital, a group that lends money to businesses so they can pay their suppliers and counted Mr Cameron among its advisers, filed for administration last week.
According to the Financial Times, Mr Cameron, before it collapsed, personally intervened to try to increase Greensill’s access to Government-backed Covid-19 emergency loan schemes.
The newspaper reported that Greensill wanted to have its cap lifted so it could lend up to £200m as part of the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS), increasing its limit of £50m at the time.
The Treasury said it had turned down the request to change the
rules around access to the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF).
Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds said a probe should be undertaken to “leave no stone unturned” in getting to the bottom of why “it appears Greensill was given so much access to the Treasury”.
“These revelations raise extremely serious questions about the Chancellor’s priorities in the middle of a pandemic,” said the senior Labour MP.
“The Government must leave no stone unturned with a full and thorough investigation into this.”
Downing Street declined to say whether Mr Cameron lobbied his former university colleague Prime Minister Boris Johnson or a special adviser in No 10.
A No 10 spokesman said: “Senior officials and Ministers routinely meet with a range of private sector stakeholders.”
Greensill Capital was the main lender to Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance which includes Liberty Steel, the owner of steel plants across the UK.
Mr Gupta’s empire employs 5,000 people in the UK, a majority of whom work for Liberty Steel across its 11 sites including Scunthorpe and Rotherham.