Now Cameron faces questions on Far East trip with tycoon
DAVID Cameron is facing fresh accusations that he ‘blurred the lines’ with his role at a failed financial firm after new details emerged of a business trip to Singapore.
The former prime minister flew to the Asian city state in 2019 to open an office there for Greensill Capital.
While there he also hosted a lunch for the local branch of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) to ‘bang the drum’ for UK trade, according to his website.
The gathering was attended by representatives of leading businesses including Lloyds Bank and Rolls-Royce. But mingling with them was Lex Greensill, the Australian founder of the collapsed financial firm, who helped organise the high-profile event.
Mr Cameron tweeted about the BCC Singapore gathering, which was written up on his official web page, giving the impression he was acting as a former PM to further British business abroad. At no point was there mention of his relationship with Mr Greensill.
Press releases trumpeting Mr Cameron’s Singapore trip have recently been deleted from the lender’s website.
The event would have given Mr Greensill access to business leaders to whom he could tout his firm. Critics last night said the episode raises questions over whether the former PM had been sufficiently transparent about his position as a paid Greensill adviser.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden defended Mr Cameron yesterday, saying he was a ‘man of utmost integrity and I’ve no doubt at all he would have behaved properly’.
But Labour MP Rachel Reeves, shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, said: ‘There appears to be a troubling blurring of lines here – the Government need to make it clear what checks were done around Cameron hosting this event with full transparency, and how they plan to deal with these concerning revelations.’
It follows the Mail’s revelation Mr Cameron’s headline speaking slot at a Saudi Arabia summit, also in 2019, could have made his stake in Greensill worth up to £70million.
BCC Singapore and Greensill declined to comment on the Singapore event. Mr Cameron’s office did not respond to a request for comment. Details of the trip came amid new claims against Mr Cameron and Greensill, which collapsed into administration this month, putting 50,000 jobs at risk.
During Mr Cameron’s time as Prime Minister, his friend Mr Greensill was given a security pass and a team of civil servants so he could promote the financial products he specialised in across Whitehall, The Sunday Times reported.
In one instance, Mr Cameron signed off on a multi-billionpound lending scheme for NHS-linked pharmacies proposed by Mr Greensill, despite a report rejecting the idea, according to the paper.
Greensill’s collapse puts jobs at risk at firms such as Liberty Steel. Greensill was a lender to Sanjeev Gupta’s business empire and his family group of companies, known as the GFG Alliance, has been affected.
In Scotland, GFG owns businesses through Liberty Steel Group, Alvance Aluminium Group and the Simec Group.
These groups operate the Dalzell and Clydebridge steelworks, the Lochaber aluminium smelter, the hydroelectric power station at Fort William,
Jahama Highland Estates and Shand Cycles.
Greensill had specialised in paying a company’s suppliers quickly, recouping the cash from the firm later for a fee.
Mr Cameron was cleared of wrongdoing last week by the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists after it emerged that he had texted Chancellor Rishi Sunak in a bid to get Greensill access to emergency Covid loans. The former prime minister said he did not need to register as a lobbyist, because he was an in-house employee.
Lord Mann, former chairman of the Treasury select committee, said: ‘We expect transparency from everyone involved in financial services. It needs to be more so, not less so, for exprime ministers.’
A Government spokesman said: ‘Lex Greensill acted as a supply chain finance adviser from 2012 to 2015 and as a Crown Representative for three years from 2013. His appointment was approved in the normal manner and he was not paid for either role.’
Disgraced tycoon and a deal that could have made Dave £70m Saturday’s Daily Mail