David Cameron’s involvement with finance company Greensill Capital “was irrelevant,” Rishi Sunak told MPs, all requests for economic support from companies were dealt with “on merit”.
The Chancellor said the identity of someone who applied for financial aid during the pandemic had no impact on the “attention and due diligence” she received amid the dispute over lobbying by Greensill.
Speaking at a Treasury select committee hearing on Thursday, Sunak added that it was “quite right” that officials should have considered any proposal, including those from the former prime minister, for help businesses given the scale of the impact of COVID-19.
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Earlier this month, the The Treasury released two text messages sent by Mr. Sunak to Mr. Cameron.
The messages, sent by Mr Cameron to the Chancellor’s private phone in 2020, show the ex-PM asking for help from finance firm Greensill Capital where he worked as an advisor.
In texts, Mr Sunak told Mr Cameron – who got a job for the company when he left office – that his request for access to government-guaranteed loans was under consideration.
Greensill Capital, which filed for insolvency in March, was led by Lex Greensill – a former adviser to Mr. Cameron during his visit to number 10.
Correspondence was also sent by Mr Cameron to two other Treasury ministers regarding the company.
Mr Cameron, who was number 10 from 2010 to 2016, said he had broken “no code of conduct and no government rule”.
But, in a written statement, acknowledged that “communications with the government should only be through the most formal channels, so there can be no room for misinterpretation.”
Pressed on how the support allocations were made during the Treasury Committee hearing on Thursday, …
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Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2021-05-27 16:16:00
