One of David Cameron's top civil servants was allowed to work for Greensill while in Whitehall
One of David Cameron's top officials was allowed to work for
controversial firm Greensill Capital while still a civil servant.
Bill Crothers spent several months as Government procurement
head and a Greensill board adviser, it emerged last night.
The extraordinary arrangement meant when he quit to work for
the lender full-time he did not have to ask approval from the watchdog that
monitors the revolving door between Whitehall and business.
Sipping tea in front of an open fire, this is the first
picture of David Cameron and Lex Greensill on their 'desert camping trip' to
Saudi Arabia
Bill Crothers (pictured right) spent several months as
Government procurement head and a Greensill board adviser
He later received shares that could have been worth more
than £5million. Boris Johnson is understood to be concerned about the highly
unusual dual role agreed by the Cabinet Office. It was revealed in official
correspondence yesterday as the lobbying scandal around the former prime
minister grew.
Mr Johnson pledged that a Greensill investigation he
launched this week will have 'carte blanche' – but dodged claims he was just
trying to take revenge on his long-standing Tory rival Mr Cameron. The House of
Commons will today decide if an independent parliamentary inquiry should also
be held into the Greensill affair, in a vote forced by Labour. In other
developments:
Health Secretary Matt Hancock confirmed he went for a
'social' drink with Mr Cameron and his financier boss Lex Greensill;Russian
oligarch Tory donor Alexander Temerko backed the former PM.
The scandal began last month when it was revealed Mr
Cameron, a paid part-time adviser to Greensill since 2018, lobbied ministers
and officials last year to let the firm gain access to the Bank of England's
huge Covid loan scheme.
The Cabinet Office revealed that Bill Crothers, the
government's former chief commercial officer, was already working for Greensill
before he left the civil service in November 2015
But in recent weeks more details have emerged of the
previously unknown links between Greensill and Government when Mr Cameron was
in No10, with financier Mr Greensill even given Downing Street business cards.
Yesterday correspondence was published showing how senior
civil servant Mr Crothers was involved in this close relationship. He had been
the Government's Chief Commercial Officer inside the Cabinet Office,
responsible for overseeing an estimated £40billion of taxpayers' money, from
April 2012.
£123m UK contract for Cameron's healthcare firm
A healthcare firm which has David Cameron as a paid
consultant won a £123million contract with a Department of Health company.
US-based Illumina made the former PM chairman of its
international board in 2017, the year after he left Downing Street. Its
executive chairman Jay Flatley and Mr Cameron appeared on stage with Health
Secretary Matt Hancock at a conference in September 2019.
A week later, Illumina was awarded the massive contract by
Genomics England – set up when Mr Cameron was Premier to sequence the DNA of
cancer patients. The Department of Health yesterday insisted Illumina was the
only firm capable of carrying out the work and it was a continuation of a 2014
deal.
It said: 'This contract was awarded in the correct way
following extensive due diligence.'
A spokesman for Mr Cameron insisted he was not a lobbyist
for Illumina and had not lobbied the Government over contracts involving the
American firm.
Then in September 2015 he was given permission to become an
adviser to Greensill's board, while still in the civil service.
The unheard-of joint role meant that when he left Whitehall
in November that year, he did not have to seek approval from the Advisory
Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA).
Mr Crothers wrote in a letter published by the watchdog: 'I
was given approval to take up a part-time board advisory role with Greensill
Capital starting from September 2015, whilst employed as a civil servant.
'At that time Greensill was a small business, 30 or 40
employees, which did not conduct any business with UK Government.
'The approval was to be a board adviser, attending board
meetings, with the role developing, discussed as becoming a director.'
He went on: 'I then left the Cabinet Office and the Civil
Service in November 2015. I again sought advice and was told that as I was
already working in an advisory capacity to Greensill before I left the Civil
Service, with that role captured under the conflicts of interest policy, no
BARs [business appointment rules] application was required to be submitted to
ACOBA.'
Mr Crothers said the part-time role took up one day a month
but he had been given approval to work 'up to a day a week'.
He insisted: 'It was seen as a way of me transitioning back
into the private sector and was supported by the Cabinet Office leadership.
This advisory role was not seen as contentious, and I believe not uncommon.'
It is thought the move would have been approved by the Cabinet
Secretary at the time, Sir Jeremy Heywood, who had originally brought young
Australian banker Mr Greensill into Government in 2011, or the then-Cabinet
Office Permanent Secretary John Manzoni.
In 2016 Mr Crothers became a director of Greensill Capital,
and went on to hold 3,653 shares, according to financial reports, which could
have been worth as much as £5.7million when the company was highly valued in
the City. But it went bust last month and the shares are now worthless.
Boris Johnson is understood to be concerned about the highly
unusual dual role agreed by the Cabinet Office
Mr Crothers went on to have at least five meetings with
Whitehall officials on behalf of Greensill.
ACOBA chairman Lord Pickles wrote to the Cabinet Office
yesterday requesting its guidance on conflicts of interest. He wrote: 'The lack
of transparency around this part-time employment with Greensill may have left
the misleading impression that Mr Crothers had wilfully ignored the obligation
to seek advice.'
Lord Pickles called for the Cabinet Office to publish
'historic and current numbers of individuals' given approval for dual roles as
well as a register of interests.
The probe into the Greensill scandal to be carried out by
City lawyer Nigel Boardman by June will look into dual roles such as that
carried out by Mr Crothers as well as lobbying by Mr Cameron.
Speaking about the inquiry for the first time yesterday, the
Prime Minister told broadcasters he had given Mr Boardman 'pretty much carte
blanche to ask anybody whatever he needs to find out'.
Mr Cameron, a paid part-time adviser to Lex Greensill's
(right) firm since 2018, lobbied ministers and officials last year to let the
firm gain access to the Bank of England's huge Covid loan scheme
The Treasury released Chancellor Rishi Sunak's texts to Mr
Cameron after a freedom of information request
He added: I would like it to be done quickly, but I want him
to have the maximum possible access so we can all understand exactly what has
happened, and that will of course be presented to Parliament in due course.'
Asked if he was looking to 'rough up a rival' in the form of
Mr Cameron by launching the inquiry, the PM replied: 'I think people have got
questions they need to satisfy themselves about – including me – about how this
supply chain finance stuff is meant to work.'
Kwarteng tells MPs £170m steel bailout would be
'irresponsible'
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng yesterday said it would be
'very irresponsible' to bail out an 'opaque' company like Liberty Steel with
£170million of public money.
The Government has been under pressure to intervene to
salvage the British steel-making industry and save 5,000 jobs.
It follows the collapse of Greensill Capital – its main
financial backer and the firm at the centre of the David Cameron lobbying
scandal.
Mr Kwarteng told the Commons if parent company GFG Alliance
was granted a loan there was no certainty the money would stay in the UK. 'We
didn't have those guarantees. It was a very opaque structure,' he said. 'We
don't know the full extent of their liabilities. The idea we would sign a
cheque for this group for £170million would be very irresponsible.'
He said Liberty had 'good' assets and 'an incredibly
talented and focused and passionate workforce' – but warned there was a danger
it could be forced to close UK plants.
In the Commons, MPs demanded answers on how Greensill had
obtained an estimated £200million in Covid loans under a Government scheme, as
well as a series of meetings with senior civil servants as it sought access to
even more cash.
Labour's Wes Streeting said: 'A few texts from 'dodgy Dave'
and Greensill got ten meetings and a ream of correspondence with senior
Treasury officials, the type of access that most businesses in this country
could only dream of.'
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves said: 'This is
an extraordinary and shocking revelation. The Conservatives have weakened the
rules so much they may as well rip them up and start again. They must be
kidding themselves if they think the current checks and measures they've got in
place are working.
'They need to strengthen rules now and get everything about
the Greensill scandal out in the open with a proper Parliamentary inquiry.'
Today Labour will call for the establishment of a new
independent 'Investigation into Lobbying of Government Committee', consisting
of 16 MPs, fearing the Government-commissioned probe will be a whitewash.
Former Attorney General Dominic Grieve, who served under Mr
Cameron, became the latest to speak out against his lobbying last night.
'If you have been a minister of the crown and you have held
high office then, I think, to turn oneself into a paid lobbyist is an
unfortunate thing to do,' he told Channel 4 News.
'The public are increasingly cynical about the way
politicians behave about allegations of corruption and cronyism in government,
and the perception that there are lots of private channels which are being
exploited.'
Mr Cameron, who will co-operate with the inquiry into his
lobbying, has insisted that he broke no rules or codes of conduct.
Last night the Cabinet Office said of Mr Crothers' dual
role: 'The Boardman review into Greensill Capital and supply chain finance will
be wide-ranging and will also consider the issues raised so the public can
judge whether they were appropriately handled at the time.'
Getting cosy in the Saudi desert... David Cameron and his
financier chum sip tea in business suits in first photo revealed of their
camping trip
Sipping tea in front of an open fire, this is the first
picture of David Cameron and Lex Greensill on their 'desert camping trip' to
Saudi Arabia.
They are wearing business suits and appear to be reclining
on luxurious floor cushions inside a tent in the photograph obtained by the
Wall Street Journal newspaper.
Greensill Capital was planning to open an office in the
Saudi capital, Riyadh, at the time of the trip in January 2020.
The pair are wearing business suits and appear to be
reclining on luxurious floor cushions inside a tent
The former PM and his friend met Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman – who was accused of approving the brutal 2018 murder of Saudi
journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Mr Greensill is said to have later boasted that they went
'camping in the desert' and he bonded with the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia
under the night sky, because they had both studied law at university.
Mr Cameron insisted he raised human rights concerns with the
Crown Prince during the trip.
He said in his statement on the affair: 'While visiting the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in January 2020 to advise on their forthcoming
chairmanship of the G20, I also – with Lex Greensill – met with a range of
business and political leaders, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
'As the Softbank Vision Fund was by this time the largest
investor in Greensill, the company was, in effect, part-owned by the Public
Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.
'Greensill planned to open a new regional office in Riyadh
as part of its international expansion and I wanted to assist in this effort.
'While in Saudi Arabia, I took the opportunity to raise
concerns about human rights, as I always did when meeting the Saudi leadership
when I was prime minister.'
A revenge brewing since Eton: Cheap jibes and a naked
rivalry that has simmered for decades... in this peerless insight, ANDREW PIERCE
reveals the true motive behind Boris Johnson's inquiry into David Cameron
As Mayor of London, Boris Johnson breezed one day into
Downing Street to talk to David Cameron about his budget settlement for City
Hall. He wanted a bumper payday for Londoners.
But Cameron, the Prime Minister for four years, was not well
disposed to his fellow Old Etonian. He believed, with some justification, that
the mayoralty was being used by Boris not to help the Government but to promote
his own Tory leadership credentials.
After some stilted small talk in the No10 study, the mayor
noticed a briefing note on Cameron's desk, which he demanded to see. The PM
refused. When Boris tried to take it, Cameron snatched it back, and the tussle
continued across the study floor, witnessed by several astonished aides.
Both men took great delight in boasting privately that they
got the piece of paper, thereby asserting their authority over the other.
In the last 48 hours the rivalry has taken a more serious
turn after Boris, who now clearly has the political upper hand, ordered an
unprecedented inquiry into Cameron's lobbying for the collapsed company
Greensill Capital.
In the last 48 hours the rivalry has taken a more serious
turn after Boris, who now clearly has the political upper hand, ordered an
unprecedented inquiry into Cameron's lobbying for the collapsed company
Greensill Capital
Team Boris insists that the inquiry is not inspired by a
wish to damage Cameron. But Cameron's allies, who it has to be said are rapidly
reducing in number, are not so sure.
'This could have been swerved by No10 but instead Boris has
fanned the flames with the inquiry,' said a former MP who was close to Cameron.
'No10 says it's all about transparency, but I think it's partly about Boris
needling Dave.'
Others suspect a more Machiavellian motive. They believe the
inquiry has been set up to divert attention from the £60,000 lavished on the
Downing Street flat redecoration project – which has been paid for by a Tory
donor but was not declared publicly by Boris. Reports suggest that Cameron had
hoped to make £60million from share options in Greenhill, although he denies
this. Boris could happily point out that, in comparison, £60,000 spent on
Downing Street is nothing.
Both sides have their supporters. Only yesterday Kwasi
Kwarteng, who has enjoyed a rapid rise into the Cabinet as Business Secretary
under Boris, told MPs the sorts of loans Cameron was trying to persuade the
Government to grant were 'very irresponsible'. Tellingly, Kwarteng – yet
another Old Etonian – was mysteriously overlooked for ministerial jobs by
Cameron.
The war of words between these Cameron and Boris backers is
a replay of what has been going on between the two men since they first crossed
swords at school. For decades now, they have been earnest rivals, constantly
trying to outdo each other.
Boris was two years above Cameron at Eton and it was he who
was the academic high-achiever and King's Scholar. Cleverer, more original and
more popular than Cameron, he boasted that he wanted to be 'world king'. 'I
dimly remember Cameron at Eton,' he said later, 'a tiny chap known as Cameron
Minor.' (Younger brothers were called Minor, older ones Major, after their
surnames).
But at Oxford their fortunes turned. While Boris became
president of the Oxford Union debating society, Cameron secured a First in
Philosophy, Politics and Economics while Johnson received a 2:1 in Greats
(Classics).
Boris scoffed that those who got Firsts were 'girly swots
who wasted their time at university' but privately he was embarrassed he hadn't
achieved the same grade.
They both became MPs in 2001, and in the House of Commons,
Cameron stretched his lead. Within two years, he was in the shadow cabinet,
while Boris never made it. By 2005 he was Tory leader and conspicuously gave no
big job to Boris – which seriously rankled.
Even now Boris resents how Cameron invited himself to dinner
at his London home in the autumn of 2007 with George Osborne the shadow
chancellor. The two younger men told Boris, a backbencher, he had to run to be
London Mayor the next year as he had no future as a senior shadow cabinet
player. They told him he wasn't sufficiently serious or hard-working.
David Cameron, standing second left, when he was in the
Bullingdon Club at Oxford with Boris Johnson, sitting down far right
Little did Cameron realise that the mayoral job would be the
making of Boris, who defied political gravity to win twice in London, a city
where Labour is now dominant. 'Suddenly Boris became king across the water,'
said one ally of the current PM, referring to the mayor's City Hall on the
other side of the Thames from Westminster. 'Boris had an aura of the winner.'
When it came to the general election in 2010, and it was Cameron's turn to face
the electorate, one of Boris's most trusted media advisers Guto Harri said:
'Shouldn't you send Dave a text wishing him well?'
To which Boris said: 'Why?' 'Because you're old friends.'
After some persuasion, he sent the text but couldn't resist the opportunity to
turn the knife: 'Good luck Dave and don't worry, if you bog it up I'm standing
by to fill the gap.'
Boris's extraordinary ambition will have meant he loathed
the fact that, in that 2010 election, Cameron at 43 became the youngest Prime
Minister in almost 200 years.
Which helps explain why, as mayor, he never missed a chance
to outshine the PM. At the parade for the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics
he capped his highly successful summer by reducing Cameron to awkward
bystander.
crowds cheered, Cameron clapping awkwardly, as Boris hailed
our athletes for producing 'paroxysms of tears and joy on the sofas of
Britain'. Cameron complained bitterly about his showboating.
At Tory Party conferences the mayor was always given a prime
speaking spot and never disappointed. The standing ovation was often longer and
louder than the one enjoyed by Cameron.
In public at least they pretended to be good friends, with
Cameron acknowledging that the mayor was clever, oozed self-belief and exuded
charisma, a quality in short supply at Westminster. But when it came to the
2016 referendum the pretence stopped.
Having vacillated for weeks on the issue, Boris – who had
returned to the Commons at the 2015 election and was standing down as mayor in
the summer of 2016 – sent Cameron a text message saying he was backing Leave.
Nine minutes later he made his decision public.
The gloves were off. In the Commons, a few days later in
February 2016, Cameron ridiculed Boris who had floated an extraordinarily
complicated idea of two EU referendums: the first to reject the paltry
concessions Cameron had secured in a deal from Brussels; the second to endorse
a better package from the EU, which he said would be forthcoming because of the
first rejection.
David Cameron in his House group photgraphs at Eton in 1984
(left) and Boris Johnson at the school in 1979
Cameron's remarks seemed to be aimed at Boris, who had
experienced trouble in his second marriage which was to end in divorce: 'Sadly
I have known a number of couples who have begun divorce proceedings, but I do
not know any who have begun divorce proceedings in order to renew their
marriage vows.'
From the backbenches, Boris shouted: 'Rubbish.'
Relations deteriorated further when Boris and Cabinet
minister Michael Gove accused Cameron in an open letter of corroding public
trust about immigration. There was a Trappist vow of silence from Cameron from
when Boris became PM until the decision to merge the Department for
International Department (DfID) into the Foreign Office.
He warned it would lead to 'less respect for the UK
overseas'. In the Commons Boris retorted: 'I profoundly disagree with that.'
In a 2019 entry in the diaries of Alan Duncan, serialised in
the Daily Mail, the former minister wrote: 'Breakfast with David Cameron. He
has a very straightforward opinion about Boris. 'He ruined my bloody career'.'
The Greensill review could do just as much damage.Boris was
pressed yesterday on whether he was looking to 'rough up a rival' via the
review. He dodged the question. Cameron might have had a more colourful answer.
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