A PROBE has been launched into the extent of David Cameron's lobbying for Greensill Capital.
Whitehall officials have already begun asking ministers and special advisers for details of all communication with the former prime minister on behalf of the scandal-hit finance firm.
Nigel Boardman, a legal expert and a non-executive director with the government's Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) department will be leading the investigation.
It comes after Gordon Brown said a law change may be required to ensure similar lobbying activities cannot happen again, and said that former prime ministers should "never be lobbying for commercial gain".
READ MORE: Brown hints at law change to avoid repeat of Cameron lobbying scandal
It is understood that Mr Cameron contacted the Chancellor and set up a private drink with Lex Greensill and Matt Hancock, but he has denied any wrongdoing.
The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "The Cabinet Office is commissioning an independent review on behalf of the Prime Minister to establish the development and use of supply chain finance and associated activities in government, and the role greens Greensill played in those.
"As you know there's significant interest in this matter. So, the PM has called for the review to ensure Government is completely transparent about such activities, and that the public can see for themselves if good value was secured for taxpayers' money.
"This independent review will also look at how contracts were secured and how business representatives engaged with government.
"It will be led by legal expert Nigel Boardman."
Asked if the review would be specifically looking at David Cameron's actions, the spokesman said it would "look at how contracts are secured and how business representatives engaged" with the UK Government.
A timescale for completion of the investigation has not yet been set out, but Downing Street said "the Prime Minister wants this to be done thoroughly and he wants it to be done promptly so you can expect a prompt return."
Ian Murray MP, Labour's Shadow Secretary of state for Scotland, welcomed the inquiry but said it could not become "another Tory cover-up".
He said there had to be a full investigation into the circumstances of the meeting between Scotland's rural environment secretary Fergus Ewing and Mr Greensill, after it emerged yesterday that he had gone for a private dinner with him and steel billionaire Sanjeev Gupta without anyone else present, or any notes being taken.
Mr Murray said: "This is an incredibly serious issue, and it’s right that an independent investigation has been called into David Cameron’s actions.
“It’s vital there is not another Tory cover-up.
“The deals agreed between the UK and Scottish governments with Greensill and GFG have backfired spectacularly, putting many jobs and over half a billion pounds of public money at risk.
“We also urgently need all of the details of Fergus Ewing’s discussions with Greensill and GFG made public.
"This incident makes it even more important to reform the Scottish parliament as proposed by Anas Sarwar."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel