London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Labour urges Whitehall chief to examine David Cameron lobbying claims

Labour urges Whitehall chief to examine David Cameron lobbying claims

Opposition accuse government of lack of transparency over dealings with Greensill Capital
Labour has demanded that the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, investigate “serious concerns” about David Cameron’s efforts to lobby Whitehall officials on behalf of the collapsed lender Greensill Capital.

The shadow chancellor, Anneliese Dodds, and shadow Cabinet Office minister, Rachel Reeves, accused the government of a lack of transparency and called for an “urgent and thorough” inquiry.

In a letter to Case, they said the investigation should focus on the decision to authorise Greensill as a lender for the government’s second largest Covid loans scheme, and the role played by the former prime minister, who was an adviser and shareholder in the firm that collapsed this month.

Cameron reportedly contacted the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, on his private phone last April in the hope of securing special access to hundreds of thousands of pounds of emergency Covid loans for Greensill through the coronavirus corporate financing facility (CCFF).

Treasury officials reportedly rebuffed Cameron and Greensill’s requests. Granting Greensill access to the 100% government-backed CCFF would have meant bending the rules, since lenders are not meant to borrow money through the programme.

However, Greensill was later authorised to hand out loans to its customers through two other Covid programmes including the coronavirus large business interruption loan scheme (CLBILS), which came with an 80% government guarantee.

On top of Cameron’s personal lobbying efforts, public records show Greensill held 10 virtual meetings with senior Treasury officials between March and June last year.

“That is far more contact than any other CLBILS lender, and at least one of those meetings appeared to take place at the chancellor’s personal request,” the Labour letter said. “Given that Greensill was allowed to make state-backed loans of up to £50m a time, and subsequently collapsed and put considerable sums of public money at risk, it is vital there is complete transparency around the process that led to the bank’s approval.”

On Wednesday it emerged that the registrar in charge of enforcing lobbying laws had launched a formal investigation into Cameron’s alleged lobbying efforts. Labour wants to up the pressure by urging Case, Whitehall’s most senior civil servant, to begin his own inquiry.

They said the issue was “all the more urgent and important” given there was no record of Cameron’s alleged actions in the government’s lobbying register, and they added: “It is vital there is complete transparency around the process that led to the bank’s approval.”

Case was urged to investigate six questions, including whether Cameron used any of the £115,000 allowance of public money granted to former prime ministers to lobby for Greensill, and whether Sunak arranged any of the 10 meetings Treasury officials are said to have had with Greensill.

Labour also asked him to look into why Cameron was not registered on the lobbying register and whether enough due diligence had been conducted to look at Greensill’s “financial health”.

Cameron said in 2010 that lobbying was “the next big scandal waiting to happen” in the wake of the scandal over MPs’ expenses.

Meanwhile, fears have grown about the fate of Liberty Steel, which owed Greensill about £3.6bn, according to the Financial Times.

Lucy Powell, a shadow business minister, said in the Commons on Thursday that steel customers, suppliers and workers connected with the firm needed to know “whether the government will step in if Liberty fails to refinance”.

Kwasi Kwartneg, the business secretary, told her it would “not necessarily be appropriate for me to comment on commercially sensitive matters at this stage”, but he vowed that the government was continuing to “follow developments very closely”.

He added: “I have seen a strong and united commitment across management, across the unions and certainly among officials in my department. I have seen a united commitment to the workforce and our steel industry.”

Kwarteng refused to be drawn on whether nationalisation was an option, saying: “It is not appropriate now, given where we are, for me to disclose anything of that kind.”

When the Labour MP Sarah Champion pushed him to agree to Labour’s call for UK steel to be used in all national infrastructure projects, he would only say he was “seeing what we can do”.

Greensill’s administrators, Grant Thornton, declined to comment.

A government spokesperson said: “There is a robust and independent accreditation process in place for lenders seeking to access the coronavirus business lending schemes.

“Senior officials and ministers routinely meet with a range of private sector stakeholders and the government received many representations from the entire spectrum of British business during the pandemic.

“HM Treasury considered the representations made by Greensill Capital on amending the Covid Corporate Financing Facility. A decision was taken not to provide the support requested”.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×