David Cameron gave banker Lex Greensill access to 11 government departments
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David Cameron gave scandal hit banker Lex Greensill access to 11 government departments to create a new cross-Whitehall financial product, it has been revealed.
Greensill, whose finance firm Greensill Capital went bust just weeks ago, was brought into the upper reaches of government by then cabinet secretary Jeremy Heywood in 2012.
Cameron went on to become an adviser in 2016 for Greensill Capital, with the former prime minister last year unsuccessfully lobbying Rishi Sunak and the Bank of England to get a bailout for the finance firm.
The Sunday Times reports that the Australian banker was in 2012 given wide reaching Whitehall access by Cameron, which included visits to departments such as the Cabinet Office, the Treasury, the Ministry of Defence and the Department of Business and Industrial Strategy.
He also had his own desk at the Cabinet Office.
Greensill oversaw a multi-billion pound loan scheme for NHS-linked pharmacies that Cameron approved.
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He also pitched projects to upgrade the M62, M4 and M5 and had meetings with defence officials about funding for new fighter jets.
A government spokesperson said: “Lex Greensill acted as a supply chain finance adviser and as a crown representative.”
Labour has called for an internal inquiry into Cameron’s behaviour, after a government review found he had not breached lobbying rules earlier this week while working for Greensill Capital.
Cameron contacted the Bank of England to try and relax the rules on the emergency Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) scheme, which sees the government buy millions of pounds worth of bonds from large investment grade firms to help them keep afloat.
He also sent texts to Sunak to try and secure funding for Greensill through the scheme, however the Treasury found the firm was not eligible.
Culture secretary Oliver Dowden, who used to be Cameron’s deputy chief of staff, told the BBC today that the former Prime Minister always acted “with integrity”.
“He is a man of the utmost integrity and I have no doubt at all he would have acted properly throughout all of this,” Dowden said.