Minister’s 4 dinners with sidekick of tax row boss
An SNP minister went out for dinner with an associate of lobbying scandal businessman Lex Greensill four times in six months.
Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing is facing allegations he broke conduct rules over a meal with the Australian banker and steel billionaire Sanjeev Gupta in June 2017.
Taxpayers could lose more than £360million as a result of deals struck between the men and Scottish Government.
Also at the dinner was Jay y Hambro – chief ef investment officer of Gupta’s GFG Alliance conglomerate. .
We can reveal Ewing dined with Hambro again on September 13,3, October 22 and Novembermber 2222. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also met with Gupta in March 2018. Ewing had another dinner with Hambro in May 2018, and a meeting with the GFG Alliance in May 2019.
Labour’s economy spokeswoman Monica Lennon said: “We need to know whether there were officials present and notes taken at these dinners.
“When you have businessmen being given access to hundreds of millions of public money, they shouldn’t be communicating with a minister via a supper club.
“Fergus Ewing has to explain exactly what was discussed and we need to know whether the ministerial code has been adhered to at all times.”
Ewing attended the June 2017 meal with no officials present, and failed to have notes taken. He also claims no emails, texts or phone records exist concerning the meet at Cail Bruich in Glasgow. Gupta has been given state support to buy plants in the Highlands and Lanarkshire over the past eight years.
GFG Alliance is in crisis due to the collapse of main financier Greensill Capital. The company was Gupta’s biggbiggest backbacker before going into adminadministration.
The Scottish GoverGovernment lent GuGupta £7millio7million to buy Dalzell anda Clydebridge works in 2015. It was supposed to lead to 2000 jobs and a new factory but construction has yet to begin and the loan is outstanding.
GFG Alliance used an offshore firm to buy an aluminium smelter and hydro plant in Lochaber, near Fort William, for £330million in 2016. As part of this, Ewing committed the Government to buying the plant’s electricity if the smelter were to shut.
There are fears this could leave taxpayers exposed to over £360million in payments without getting anything in return.
Ex-PM David Cameron is facing questions over Greensill, who he took on as an adviser. Cameron later worked for Greensill Capital and contacted Chancellor Rishi Sunak in the hope of getting access to Covid loans for the firm.
An SNP spokesman said: “All the SNP Government’s dealings with GFG have been focused entirely on saving jobs and promoting economic development in Scotland – unlike the Tories, whose dealings with Greensill have them mired in a cesspit of Westminster sleaze which they simply cannot run away from.”