In a House of Commons debate last week on the Greensill lobbying scandal, several Labour MPs referred to former prime minister David Cameron as “Dodgy Dave”.
It was an insult first hurled at Mr Cameron across the Commons chamber by Labour’s Dennis Skinner in 2016 and earned the “Beast of Bolsover” a red card from then Speaker John Bercow.
Now Mr Cameron is no longer in the Commons, MPs are free to call him what they like, protected by parliamentary privilege.
And, of course, he’s no longer there to defend himself.
But the publication by the Bank of England of 24 pages of emails and other contacts between Mr Cameron and Threadneedle Street suggest “Dodgy Dave” became “Desperate Dave”.
The day after Sir Keir Starmer attacked the texts between Boris Johnson and vacuum cleaner tycoon Sir James Dyson in his “sleaze, sleaze, sleaze” onslaught, the focus of the lobbying row has returned to Mr Cameron.
And the document dump reveals that the ex-prime minister turned to the Bank of England for help in apparent desperation after being rebuffed by the Treasury.
“Am writing to ask for your help,” Mr Cameron wrote to Bank of England official Sir Jon Cunliffe – who previously worked for him in Number 10 when he was prime minister – on 3 April last year.
“Greensill – who I work with – have had numerous conversations with HM Treasury but have failed to get anywhere,” he complained.
“We have dealt with every objection,” he pleaded.
A few weeks later, on 22 April, Mr Cameron wrote again: “Apologies for bothering you about this again… It is incredibly frustrating.”
Earlier Sir Tom Scholar, now the Treasury’s top civil servant but also a Cameron aide when he was prime minister, told the Commons’ public accounts committee that Greensill “persistently” lobbied the Treasury.
He told the committee Mr Cameron had rung him directly on his mobile phone and sent him a series of text messages.
He had his number, Sir Tom said, because he used to work for him in Number 10.
There’s more to come. Publication of the Treasury’s own records of Mr Cameron’s pleading on behalf of Greensill is imminent.
Mr Cameron is also, no doubt, turning the contents of his much-lampooned Shepherd’s Hut upside down in a frantic search for his own records. And no doubt also hoping he doesn’t find anything too incriminating.
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As for Sir Keir’s “sleaze, sleaze, sleaze” charge against the Tories during this week’s Prime Minister’s Questions, attacking Mr Johnson’s attempts to secure ventilators urgently to treat COVID patients didn’t quite work.
Sir James has pointed out that it was a national emergency, it cost his firm £20m and his staff worked around the clock “to build potentially life-saving equipment at a time of dire need”.
Mr Cameron, on the other hand, stood to make a great deal of money personally – millions of pounds, potentially – if Greensill had prospered. It didn’t and the company went bust.
No wonder the tone of his emails to the Bank of England appear somewhat desperate.