London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Sep 07, 2026

David Cameron personally promoted Greensill to investors

David Cameron personally promoted Greensill to investors

Former Prime Minister David Cameron personally promoted Greensill Capital to investors before the controversial company collapsed.

BBC Panorama discovered Mr Cameron appeared with the company's founder, Lex Greensill, at an event hosted by the Swiss bank Credit Suisse in 2019.

The collapse of Greensill in March has left the bank's clients facing billions of dollars in losses.

Mr Cameron says there was no wrongdoing in any of the actions he took.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson told BBC Radio Four's Today programme on Tuesday that Mr Cameron had been "absolutely cleared" of any wrongdoing by two independent investigations.

He added he had made himself "available to parliamentary scrutiny", which was "the right thing to do".

Mr Cameron worked for the company as a part-time adviser for two-and-a-half years after stepping down as prime minister.

Panorama has also discovered documents indicating his role earned him about $10m before tax.

Mr Cameron's spokesman has said his remuneration was a private matter.

The June event Mr Cameron attended was called "The Future of Supply Chain Finance", and the audience were wealthy Credit Suisse clients.

Credit Suisse was marketing and selling Greensill investments at the time, and the bank told investors they were low risk.

Investors thought their money was being loaned to companies that were awaiting payment for goods and services they had sold.

The loans were supposed to be backed up by unpaid invoices, but earlier this year it was revealed that some of the invoices simply did not exist.

'Disclosures'


US court papers show how between 2018 and 2021, Greensill lent $850m of investors' cash to a US coal company called Bluestone Resources.

Only $70m of that money was secured against real invoices for coal that Bluestone had actually sold.

Investors did not know it, but the remaining $780m was only backed by predicted coal sales that may or may not happen in the future.

Lex Greensill told Panorama that this type of financing was commonplace in the financial services industry.

He said the predicted Bluestone business was all "based upon future trade that is likely to occur with current customers".

Panorama discovered that was not true.

The programme obtained the names of the companies that Lex Greensill said were current customers of Bluestone.

Six of the companies said they were not Bluestone customers and they weren't planning to buy its coal in the future.

Lex Greensill later told Panorama the coal buyers did not have to be current customers. Bluestone only had to state it expected to make the sales at some future point and Greensill was not obliged to make checks, he said.

Mr Greensill denied misleading investors. He said his company made all the appropriate disclosures to Credit Suisse and the Swiss Bank was "solely responsible for making any disclosures to their investors".

He said the loans were always secured against assets and personal guarantees, and were backed up by insurance that would pay 100% of any shortfall.

Credit Suisse says its focus is on returning cash to investors and that 59% has been returned so far.

Mr Cameron's spokesman told Panorama he was neither a director of Greensill, nor involved in any lending decisions, and that he had no special insight into what ultimately happened.

The spokesman said: "It is also preposterous to suggest that he would work for any company if he was aware that it was behaving improperly, or was in any way seeking to mislead investors."

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
University of Bristol Opens £500 Million Innovation Campus
Families Give Evidence to Independent Review of Sussex Maternity Failures
Sweden Confirms Deportation of 458 British Citizens Over Post-Brexit Residency Rules
UK Launches £3 Million Challenge for Long-Duration Energy Storage
Reform UK Proposes £100 Billion in Spending Cuts and Brownfield Deregulation
Andy Burnham Warns Macron That EU Procurement Rules Could Hurt British Steel
Andy Burnham Faces Major Decision on Future North Sea Oil and Gas Drilling
SEND Support in England Projected to Reach One in 10 Pupils
England’s Housing Courts Struggle With Surge in No-Fault Eviction Cases
Violent Clashes Erupt in Portsmouth During Protest Against Asylum Processing
Three-Quarters of NHS Emergency Staff Report Regular Violence or Aggression
UK Considers Converting Female Prison Space for Male Inmates as Overcrowding Worsens
UK House Prices Record First Annual Decline in Nearly Three Years
UK Government Reassesses Policy Toward Israel Amid Calls for Diplomatic Shift
Reform UK Faces Police Scrutiny Over Alleged Foreign Donations Scheme
University of Bristol Opens £500 Million Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus
Online Bookmakers Accused of Privacy Breaches Through Cookie Consent Practices
Health Campaigners Urge UK Government to Abandon U.S. Pharmaceutical Agreement
Three-Quarters of UK A&E Staff Report Regular Violence or Aggression
Far-Right Demonstrations Target Portsmouth as Small-Boat Crossings Fuel Tensions
UK Records Hottest Summer on Record After Severe Heatwaves
UK Travellers Face Renewed EU Border Delays as Temporary Flexibility Ends
UK Rejects Calls to Pause AI Data Centre Expansion Despite Energy Concerns
UK Defence Figures Push for 3% Spending Target Amid Falklands Concerns
England Faces Rising Financial Pressure as Special Educational Needs Plans Surge
Metropolitan Police Consider Reform UK Probe Over Overseas Donations
Keir Starmer to Leave Parliament, Triggering By-Election
UK Treasury Weighs Windfall Taxes on Banks and Oil Companies Amid Bond Market Turmoil
Jaguar Land Rover to Cut Thousands of Jobs as UK Government Rules Out Bailout
OpenAI Unveils GPT-6 and Says: "We May Already Have Reached AGI"
Congressman Accused Andrew of Sex Crimes in the United States
Donald Trump: "I'm Glad Harry and Meghan Left the United States"
Spicy Food Is Linked to Lower Death Risk — but It Is Not a Miracle Cure
AfD Enters Saxony-Anhalt Election at 41% in Historic Test for German Politics
Gen Z Turns to Investing as America's First-Home Dream Moves Further Out of Reach
Thousands Join London March Calling for Tighter Abortion Restrictions
Institute of Directors Says Tax and Regulatory Uncertainty Still Weighs on UK Investment
Bank of England Faces Rate Dilemma as Weak Growth and Persistent Inflation Raise Stagflation Risks
Masked Anti-Immigration Protesters Block Roads to Port of Dover
Prime Minister Andy Burnham Sets Out Devolution and Re-Industrialisation Agenda
British Chambers of Commerce Forecasts UK Growth of Just 1% Through 2027
UK Government Advances Bill to Tighten Rules on Overseas Political Donations
Nigel Farage Faces Scrutiny Over Alleged Reform UK Donation-Law Evasion
Thousands Join Anti-Abortion March Through Central London
UK Beekeepers Call for Nationwide Tracking as Asian Hornet Sightings Increase
England Sees Sharp Rise in Property Subsidence Claims After Record Summer Heat
House of Lords Advances Financial Services Reform Bill
House of Lords Begins Detailed Scrutiny of Railways Bill and Great British Railways Plan
UK Treasury Cuts Green Book Discount Rate to Support More Regional Infrastructure Projects
Reform UK Suspends Two Senior Aides After Undercover Report on Foreign Donation Rules
×