‘MORE STALKING THAN LOBBYING’
David Cameron ridiculed in marathon grilling over texts
Are you at least a little bit embarrassed about the way you behaved?
DAVID Cameron squirmed as MPs grilled him over the barrage of texts he sent to ministers touting for support for Greensill Capital.
The Tory ex-Prime Minister boasted of the “generous” salary he was paid by the firm as he faced an excruciating 144-minute session of the Commons Treasury Select Committee.
Yet he claimed he was not motivated by money when he sent dozens of messages pleading for public cash to be handed to his employer.
Labour MP Angela Eagle told him: “I read your 56 messages and they’re more like stalking than lobbying. Are you at least a little bit embarrassed about the way you behaved?”
Siobhain McDonagh asked: “Do you not feel that you have demeaned yourself and your position by WhatsApping your way around Whitehall, on the back of a fraudulent enterprise, based on selling bonds of high-risk debt to unsuspecting investors?”
Fellow Labour MP Rushanara Ali added: “Your reputation tatters, Mr Cameron.”
Mr Cameron fired off dozens of texts, emails and WhatsApp messages last spring to former colleagues including Chancellor Rishi Sunak, asking for supply chain finance firm Greensill to benefit from Treasury or Bank of England support.
The pleas were rejected and Greensill collapsed in March, putting thousands of jobs at risk as it was a major financial backer of Liberty Steel.
Mr Cameron said: “Just because the is now in business goes into administration it does not mean everything about it was wrong, it doesn’t mean the whole thing was some giant fraud.”
He refused to say how much he stood to gain from Greensill, saying only that he had a “big economic investment”.
He added: “I was paid a generous annual amount, far more than what I earned as PM, and I had shares in the
business which vested over the period of my contract. I had a big economic investment in the future of Greensill, so I wanted the business to succeed.”
Committee chairman Mel Stride told Mr Cameron he sent a “barrage” of messages on behalf of Greensill.
He added: “Many people would conclude at the time of your lobbying your opportunity to make a large amount of money was under threat.”
But Mr Cameron said: “The motivation..was that I thought we had a really good idea for how to help extending credit to thousands of businesses.”
He was also taunted for signing off “love DC” in messages to top Treasury civil servant Tom Scholar. He said: “Anyone I know at all well, I tend to sign off with ‘love DC’. My children tell me it’s very old fashioned and odd.”
ANGELA EAGLE CONFRONTS CAMERON OVER LOBBYING