Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey on Lex Greensill:
“Mr Greensill sometimes presents it [supply chain finance] as if he’s discovered the secrets of the universe. Certainly there was some innovation around it. There may well have been some useful innovation around it”
Siobahn McDonagh and Angela Eagle hardly pulled their punches in their interrogation of David Cameron during today’s committee hearing. McDonagh in particular left Cameron looking pretty uncomfortable…
A few highlights include McDonagh asking if Cameron believed Greensill ‘was a ponzi scheme’, and Eagle claiming the 56 messages Cameron had sent looked ‘more like stalking than lobbying’. A few red-faced moments for Dave, to say the least.
Prior to the Lex Greensill lobbying affair, Cameron’s texts had already made news back in 2013 when it was revealed he had taken to ending texts with ‘LOL’, thinking it meant “Lots of love”, until Rebekah Brooks informed him of the true meaning. A new release from the Treasury select committee ahead of Lex Greensill’s appearance this afternoon reveals Cameron’s new overly-friendly approach to lobbying. Sick bags at the ready…
Messages from Cameron include one to permanent Treasury secret Tom Scholar ending, “Can I give you lunch once the budget is done? Love Dc.”; another love-filled message to Scholar reads “See you with Rishi’s [sic] for an elbow bump or foot tap. Love Dc”. Etonian “oiling” really is a thing to behold…
The release also shows Cameron was so desperate he put aside personal animosity with Gove to try and get his way, clearly sent through gritted teeth:
In total there are 56 conversations released by the Treasury committee, covering a mere three month period in 2020. The government will continue feeling relaxed; the messages further prove Cameron’s desperate lobbying fell on deaf ears…
Read the messages in full here:
While the Tories are in the hot seat in Westminster over the Greensill scandal, Labour are also turning fire north of the border – at Nicola Sturgeon. This week it emerged SNP minister Fergus Ewing had a secret and undocumented meeting with Greensill and Gupta, the latter eventually garnering more than half-a-billion pounds in taxpayer guarantees from the SNP government. Guess who’s once again facing questions over when she knew about a controversial meeting. Sturgeon’s memory is notoriously shaky…
Shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray has now accused SNP cronyism of being the “next Greensill scandal”
“The SNP government is embroiled in its own complex web of connections between senior Scottish ministers, Sanjeev Gupta and his financial backer Lex Greensill.”
As Murray points out, the governing party north of the border – accused of poor use of taxpayers money with Gupta – is also under investigation by the police for a £600,000 black hole in their election finances. Given the reluctance by the London-based media to focus on the Salmond/Sturgeon row, Guido doesn’t hold out hope for the same media scrutiny of this aspect of the cronyism row…
