Greensill scandal shows lobbying rules are ‘insufficient’, say MPs
LOBBYING rules were “insufficient” in the face of David Cameron’s bidding on behalf of failed finance firm Greensill Capital, and should be strengthened, MPs have said.
The former Conservative Prime Minister placed calls and sent dozens of texts and emails to Ministers and senior officials as he tried to win access to Covid support programmes for the since-collapsed specialist bank.
However, as there were more than two years between his resignation from Downing Street and taking up his role at Greensill, Mr Cameron’s actions have been deemed permissible under current rules.
But the Commons Treasury Committee, which carried out one of nine investigations into the Greensill saga, said the rules should be tightened to prevent further lobbying episodes from occurring.
“We accept that Mr Cameron did not break the rules governing lobbying by former ministers, but that reflects on the insufficient strength of the rules, and there is a strong case for strengthening them,” said the committee’s Lessons from Greensill Capital report.
In what will be awkward reading for Mr Cameron, the committee called into question his judgment in relation to his lobbying on behalf of Greensill, in which he held shares, and said the Treasury was right to reject the firm’s offer.
Its report said that, had he “taken a broader and more enquiring assessment of the business”, there were “signals available” which might have led him to take a “more restrained approach” .
MPs were also critical of the Treasury for failing to direct Mr Cameron into “more formal methods of communication” after his initial contact with officials.
In the 71-page report published today, the cross-party group of politicians said they expected the department “to put in place more formal processes to deal with any such lobbying attempts by exprime ministers or ministers in the future”.