Taxpayers footed £2million bill for failed firm that paid David Cameron millions
David Cameron has been told to declare how much earned from Greensill Capital as it emerged taxpayers footed a £2million redundancy bill when it went bust.
The Foreign Secretary is reported to have been paid millions of pounds to advise the finance firm before it collapsed in 2021.
In a letter to the Cabinet minister, Labour MP Nick Smith called on him to confirm “in the interests of transparency” how much he received. He wrote: “I have ascertained that taxpayers have had to pay out £2,008,557 [in redundancy payments] after the company collapsed on 12 March 2021. You may remember that approximately 277 employees of Greensill were laid off without any notice via [a] Zoom call.”
Mr Smith, who is Shadow Deputy Commons Leader, added: “You have previously informed the Treasury Select Committee that you were told by Mr Lex Greensill in a telephone conversation in December 2020 that Greensill had “serious financial difficulties’. Can you please say what you were told by Mr Greensill about these difficulties?” He went on: “Did you receive any remuneration from Greensill Capital after December 2020?”
Mr Cameron’s work for Greensill saw him go on a desert camping trip with Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Bin Salman just months after he was accused of ordering the brutal killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
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In 2020, he unsuccessfully tried to persuade the Government to allow Greensill to get its hands on Covid cash. The Treasury Select Committee found he had shown a “significant lack of judgement” by lobbying ministers for the firm in which he had a financial interest, including sending nine WhatsApp messages to Mr Sunak who was Chancellor.
BBC Panorama previously claimed Mr Cameron made more than £7million from Greensill Capital before it collapsed - although he insisted the figure was wrong. The former PM disputed a report made by the programme, insisting he “did not receive anything like the figures quoted by Panorama”. But he refused to disclose how much he did get paid, saying it was a “private matter”.
Mr Cameron began his role as an adviser to Greensill in August 2018, just over two years after he resigned as prime minister in July 2016. The firm's founder, Lex Greensill, advised the Government during Mr Cameron's time in No10 but he denied he had been offered a role while in office.
When he was appointed last month, Lord Cameron dismissed criticism of his former role at Greensill, saying: "As far as I am concerned, that is all dealt with and in the past. I now have one job, as Britain's Foreign Secretary."
A spokesman for him previously said: “David Cameron deeply regrets that Greensill went into administration and is desperately sorry for those who have lost their jobs. As he was neither a director of the company, nor involved in any lending decisions, he has no special insight into what ultimately happened. He acted in good faith at all times, and there was no wrongdoing in any of the actions he took.
“He made the representations he did to the UK Government not just because he thought it would benefit the company, but because he sincerely believed there would be a material benefit for UK businesses at a challenging time. He had no idea until December 2020 that the company was in danger of failure.”
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