Lex Greensill, the billionaire founder of the now bankrupt finance firm Greensill Capital, is to be questioned by MPs later in relation to the ongoing Westminster lobbying scandal.
The treasury select committee is conducting an inquiry into the links between Mr Greensill, the government, and David Cameron – who was employed by Greensill Capital as a lobbyist.
It is one of seven active inquiries into different aspects of the controversy which has raised questions over how Mr Greensill was able to gain access and influence at the heart of government to promote his own business interests over several years.
The firm filed for insolvency in March, putting tens of thousands of jobs at risk globally in companies that had been dependent on its financing – including around 5,000 jobs in the UK, primarily employees of Liberty Steel.
Mr Cameron will also appear before the same committee on Thursday to face questions over phone calls and text messages he sent to senior officials and politicians, including Chancellor Rishi Sunak, in an effort to persuade them to grant Greensill Capital a role in the government’s COVID-19 support programmes for businesses.
While his requests were not successful, there are questions about whether his approaches amounted to improper lobbying of ministers.
Treasury select committee chairman Mel Stride said: “The committee is determined to answer the key question as to whether HM Treasury responded appropriately to the lobbying on behalf of Greensill Capital, including that carried out by David Cameron.”
When he was leader of the opposition in February 2010, Mr Cameron famously said political lobbying would be “the next big scandal waiting to happen”, insisting the Conservatives “must be the party that sorts all this out”.
David Cameron and Lex Greensill on a trip to Saudi Arabia in January last year
It has emerged that in 2011 Lex Greensill, a former investment banker, was brought into government as an adviser by the then top civil servant Jeremy Heywood. The pair had been colleagues at US bank Morgan Stanley.
Last month current Cabinet Secretary Simon Case told the public administration and constitutional affairs committee there was no record of the contract or terms on which Mr Greensill was operating in government at that time.
In April Mr Cameron said: “The false impression has been created that Lex Greensill was a close member of my team, meeting with me on a regular basis.
“The truth is, I had very little to do with Lex Greensill at this stage – as I recall, I met him twice at most in the entirety of my time as prime minister.”
In October 2012 Mr Greensill sat alongside Mr Cameron when he launched a new supply chain finance scheme for community pharmacies in England. Citigroup, which previously employed Mr Greensill, won the initial contract for the scheme.
In July 2018 Greensill Capital took over the supply chain finance scheme for NHS pharmacies.
A month later Mr Cameron joined Greensill Capital as a part-time senior adviser. He has since said he was contracted to work for the company for 25 days per year, with his pay partly in the form of a grant of shares.
Before the pandemic, in October 2019, Mr Cameron had meetings with Health Secretary Matt Hancock and senior NHS figures such as Chief Executive Sir Simon Stevens and Dido Harding. They are reported to have discussed an advance salary payment scheme later rolled out in the NHS.
Mr Hancock confirmed the “social meeting” took place, adding: “Given that departmental business came up, I reported to officials in the normal way.”
Mr Cameron has since said in a statement: “As a former prime minister, I accept that communications with government need to be done through only the most formal of channels, so there can be no room for misinterpretation”.