Boris Johnson has ordered a “thorough and prompt” investigation into David Cameron's attempt to lobby ministers on behalf of the financier Lex Greensill.
The prime minister has commissioned an independent review by Nigel Boardman, a lawyer at Slaughter and May, into the way representations were made to the government and how contracts were awarded.
Ministers and special advisers have been asked to detail their contacts with Cameron amid an intensifying backlash over the former prime minister's lobbying of the government on behalf of his Greensill Capital.
Cameron admitted yesterday that it had been a mistake to text and email Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, and other ministers for the benefit of the financier Lex Greensill. He insisted, however, that he had not broken any rules and that he had been primarily motivated by a desire to help out an innovative UK finance start-up.
Over the weekend it emerged that Cameron had also arranged a “private drink” with Matt Hancock, the health secretary, for Greensill. It is also understood that Cameron lobbied Matthew Gould, head of the health service technology unit NHSX, on behalf of a scheme to pay doctors and nurses on the day of their shift.
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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 Greensill played in those.
“As you know, there is significant interest in this matter, so the prime minister 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.”
Cameron began working for Greensill Capital in 2018. It emerged last month that he had directly lobbied Sunak to give the company a role in the government’s Covid-19 loan scheme. He also approached the Bank of England. Greensill later went into administration, leaving taxpayers potentially liable for hundreds of millions of pounds in loans.
Last night, 40 days after questions were first raised, Cameron released a statement saying that he was “desperately sorry” for people affected by the collapse of Greensill Capital. He said that he understood concern about the “ease of access and familiarity” in lobbying ministers via text message and email, but he argued that he wanted to make his case quickly during the coronavirus crisis when Greensill had a “genuine and legitimate proposal to help”.
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He said that he had learnt lessons: “As a former prime minister, I accept that communications with government need to be done through only the most formal of channels, so there can be no room for misinterpretation.”
Gordon Brown, a former Labour prime minister, suggested Cameron had brought politics into disrepute and called for a legal ban on former prime minsters lobbying the government. He insisted that high office “cannot ever become a platform for private gain”.
“I can’t comment on the individual detail of this, but for me there are principles about public service: it cannot ever become a platform for private gain,” Brown told Today on Radio 4. “Ministers must never be lobbying, former ministers, prime ministers, must never be lobbying for commercial purposes. Current ministers should not be entertaining such lobbying.
“If we can’t succeed in achieving this stopping by the sort of flexibility of the rules, we are going to have to pass laws to make sure that, at least for say five years, no serving or former prime minister or minister is ever lobbying for any commercial purpose within government.”
Sir Bernard Jenkin, chairman of the Commons liaison committee, said that Cameron was “clearly feeling acutely embarrassed” by his behaviour, but insisted that “this very informal way of conducting relationships about very important matters and the distribution of public money” was not acceptable.
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Jenkin said that Cameron was “reflecting a culture of a very casual way of running governments and running the country that didn’t start with David Cameron: ‘sofa government’ long pre-dated David Cameron.”
He added that he was “not going to pass judgment on David Cameron” and suggested that Brown’s five-year ban would not work. “Is it okay for an ex-prime minister to start lobbying after six years? You can’t make laws stretch far into the future to bind people to previous employment, it just doesn’t work.”
Jenkin said that ministers had to be able to earn a living after leaving politics and argued that it was up to government, rather than former politicians, to improve the way they responded to lobbying.
He called for “changes to the ministerial code, and to the civil service code, that would recognise what kind of things might be going on when you are dealing with a contractor, when you are dealing with someone like Lex Greensill, while you are a minister or while you are an official”.
Hancock is expected to be asked in the Commons tomorrow whether he knew that Greensill would attend what was billed as a social drink with Cameron two months after the former prime minister emailed him on behalf of a Greensill product.
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An ally of Hancock said: “Matt acted in entirely the correct way: he updated officials on the business that was discussed, as is appropriate.”
Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: “It is crucial that the former prime minister appears before parliament so that all the information is brought to light. Transparency and accountability are crucial and that requires the utmost openness from government to establish the full facts behind this scandal.”
