Steel boss meetings ‘different from Greensill’

Dinners involving a Scottish government cabinet secretary and the steel billionaire Sanjeev Gupta are “very different” from the Greensill lobbying scandal, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

The First Minister was pressed on meetings between Rural Affairs Secretary Fergus Ewing and Mr Gupta – an associate of Greensill Capital's Lex Greensill.

Mr Ewing reportedly met Mr Gupta over a meal in June 2017. It comes as a series of inquiries have been commissioned, including by Downing Street, as Westminster looks to understand the role former prime minister David Cameron played in securing Whitehall access for Greensill.

Ms Sturgeon insisted dealing were “recorded in the usual way in the register of meetings”.

She told Sky News' Sophy Ridge on Sunday: "It's not the lobbying scandal we see elsewhere. All the proper due diligence has been done. The two things are not the same."