Former UK PM David Cameron ‘told friends he’d make $US60m from Greensill deal’

Former British PM under growing pressure over his lobbying efforts for scandal-hit banker Lex Greensill.

Former UK PM David Cameron, main picture, told friends he stood to make $60 million from Greensill listing. Pictures: AFP

David Cameron told friends that he stood to make $US60m from the listing of a company at the heart of a lobbying scandal, it has been claimed.

A friend of the former British prime minister said that he was “candid” about the potential windfall from his shareholdings in Greensill after it was valued at $US7bn.

Cameron subsequently sent a series of texts to Rishi Sunak, the chancellor of the exchequer, lobbying him to grant hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded loans to the company.

Sunak referred him to senior officials at the Treasury, who decided to reject the company’s applications for loans. The company went bust, leaving Cameron’s share options worthless. The claim that Cameron had told friends about the potential value of his share options was denied on Sunday by sources close to him.

Greensill used complex financial engineering to fuel the rapid rise of the steel tycoon Sanjeev Gupta, who is fighting to save his empire after the company’s collapse.

Ministers are now prepared to intervene to save the jobs if Liberty Steel, Gupta’s company, goes into administration. They have rejected requests from the company for a bailout.

The office building that includes the headquarters of defunct Greensill Bank in Bremen, Germany. Picture: David Hecker/Getty Images

It comes after The Sunday Times alleged that Lex Greensill, the owner of the finance firm, enriched himself through a government-backed loan scheme he designed after Cameron gave him access to 11 departments and agencies. Labour and Sir Alistair Graham, former chairman of the committee on standards in public life, called for a full inquiry into the affair.

The Pharmacy Early Payment Scheme, announced in 2012, saw banks swiftly reimburse pharmacists for providing National Health Service prescriptions, for a fee, before recovering the money from the government. Greensill Capital went on to provide funds for the scheme.

Sir Alistair said: “There clearly should be a full inquiry because it sounds like a genuine scandal in which the public purse was put at risk without proper political authority.”

Rachel Reeves, Britain’s shadow Cabinet Office minister, said: “These reports raise very serious questions about the conduct of former Conservative prime minister David Cameron … The British people deserve answers to those questions.”

Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary and a longstanding ally, defended Cameron as a “man of utmost integrity”.

Lex Greensill of Greensill Capital. Picture: Annabel Moeller

A government spokesman said: “Lex Greensill acted as a supply chain finance adviser from 2012 to 2015 and as a crown representative for three years from 2013. His appointment was approved in the normal manner and he was not paid for either role.”

The office of Cameron, who was prime minister between 2010 and 2016, has not responded to a request for comment.

The registrar of consultant lobbyists, a watchdog, cleared him of breaking lobbying rules over his texts to Sunak, as he was an employee of Greensill Capital so was not required to declare himself on the register of consultant lobbyists.

Greensill claimed Cameron brokered an introduction with then US president Barack Obama, which helped him build up his business empire.

He told The Australian newspaper in 2018: “David wanted advice [when he was PM]. It was really around, ‘How do we get credit to small companies and what things can we do? And then David introduced me to Barack Obama and I did a similar thing for the Obama administration.”

The Times