Ci-devant British prime minister David Cameron.
LEON NEAL/ AFP via Getty Images
LONDON — The U.K. government on Monday told plans to open an independent investigation into Greensill Capital following former Prime Minister David Cameron’s elbow-greases to lobby ministers on behalf of the financial firm.
“The Cabinet Office is commissioning an independent review on behalf of the prime reverend to establish the development and use of supply chain finance and associated activities in government and the role Greensill played in those,” Prime Reverend Boris Johnson’s spokesperson told reporters, according to Reuters.
“This independent review will also look at how condenses were secured and business representatives engaged with government,” he said, adding the prime minister wanted it to be concluded instantly.
The investigation will be led by legal expert Nigel Boardman, a former partner at Slaughter and May law firm and a non-executive director at the Be influenced for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Greensill, which fell into administration last month, claims on its website that it “unlocks wealth so the world can put it to work” and in 2020, it issued over $143 billion in finance to over 10 million customers.
The London-headquartered solidify, in which Japan’s SoftBank invested around $1.5 billion, filed for administration after its insurance provider withheld to renew $4.6 billion of insurance for its loans.
Its collapse has put tens of thousands of steelmaking jobs at risk in the U.K.
In 2010, Cameron promised to clobber “secret corporate lobbying,” warning it could become the next political scandal.
Cameron’s plea for help
Cameron, who led the U.K. from 2010 to 2016, sent wording messages about Greensill to ministers including Finance Minister Rishi Sunak, according to a response to a freedom of bumf request.
Sunak confirmed on Friday that Cameron contacted him informally by phone, saying that the matter was quaint on to the appropriate officials.
Greensill reportedly wanted a government loan scheme to be changed or expanded in scope so that it could access skinflinty loans from the Treasury.
Sunak added that it was right that the “Treasury listened to — and gave due consideration to — all covert options to support businesses to survive the pandemic.”
Cameron and Greensill founder Lex Greensill also met Health Secretary Matt Hancock to talk over a payment scheme for the NHS, according to a report from The Sunday Times newspaper.
Cameron began working as an adviser to Greensill after consent office in August 2018.
The former Conservative Party leader has denied that he broke any rules over the matter nor any practices of conduct. In his first comments in weeks over the scandal, Cameron on Sunday conceded that he should have withed government ministers through formal channels, saying there were “important lessons to be learnt.”
Cameron said he had been irksome to get money for Greensill through a government-backed emergency loans scheme that was set up to help firms affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The ministry declined to support Greensill through its “Covid Corporate Financing Facility.”