David Cameron is facing new questions over lobbying after an American healthcare company he acts for as a paid adviser secured a £123 million contract with the Department of Health.
Illumina was awarded the sum a week after the former prime minister appeared with Matt Hancock, the health secretary, at a genomics conference in September 2019.
Cameron has denied lobbying on any Illumina contracts, saying that his role at the company was purely to promote the benefits of genome sequencing.
The conference coincided with a £200 million expansion in the government’s sequencing programme. A week later Genomics England, a health department body, awarded Illumina the £123 million contract without competition.
Cameron issued a statement on Sunday in response to the outrage surrounding the collapse of Greensill Capital, a supply chain finance company. He said he understood concerns about his ease of access to ministers but insisted he had not broken any rules when he texted Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, in a failed attempt to secure government-backed loans for the company.
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On a separate occasion Cameron met Hancock and Lex Greensill, the company ’s head, for a “private drink” to discuss a payment scheme that was later launched for NHS staff, The Sunday Times reported.
Questions are now being raised about Cameron’s work for Illumina. As prime minister, he set up Genomics England to sequence the DNA of hundreds of thousands of patients with cancers and rare diseases. In 2014 Cameron announced a £78 million deal between Genomics England and Illumina. After leaving No 10 in 2016, Cameron visited Illumina’s headquarters in San Diego. In 2017 he joined Illumina as a consultant and chairman of the international advisory board.
He was told that he could not lobby ministers on behalf of the company until the full two years had elapsed since he left No 10. In his statement on Sunday, Cameron simply listed Illumina as one of his “commercial interests”.
The Department of Health and Social Care said: “The health secretary is a strong supporter of the UK’s world leading genomic sequencing capability. This contract was awarded in the correct way following extensive due diligence and through the proper transparency notice process.
“The 2019 contract was a follow-on to the original sequencing contract entered into with Illumina for the 100,000 Genome Project in 2014. As set out in the transparency notice published at the time, the contract was directly awarded because Illumina was the only company with the technical capability to deliver the work. This assessment followed all the correct processes and due diligence by officials. The health secretary followed the official guidance regarding attendance at conferences.”
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Illumina said: “Illumina always follows the correct and necessary process in its negotiations with customers.”
A spokesman for Cameron said: “He was not engaged as a lobbyist [for Illumina] and has not lobbied the UK government about any contracts between Illumina and the UK government.”
Sir John Major has called for an overhaul of the code of ethics for senior officials. Last night Dame Arabella Warburton, the former prime minister’s chief of staff, told The Daily Telegraph that Major believes “it is right to update the rules on propriety” in the wake of the Greensill row.
Questions he must answer
We have seen Rishi Sunak’s replies to David Cameron, but what texts did Cameron send Sunak? Will Cameron release them?
Besides Sunak, Matt Hancock, John Glen and Jesse Norman, did Cameron make contact with any other ministers on behalf of Greensill Capital? If so, what messages were exchanged?
How much were Cameron’s shares in Greensill worth? In a statement, he has said that the “value was nowhere near the amount speculated in the press” of $60 million. So how much was it?
Cameron says that he had “very little to do” with Lex Greensill when the disgraced Australian financier worked in No 10. So why did Greensill describe himself on business cards as a “senior adviser” to the “prime minister’s office”?
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Cameron says that he raised human rights concerns with Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, during a camping trip in the desert. What did he say?
Cameron also works for Fiserv, Illumina and Afiniti. Which ministers has he contacted on behalf of these companies? What messages have been exchanged?
What is Cameron’s financial interest in these three other companies? Is he salaried or does he have share options? What are they worth?
When Cameron went for a private drink with Hancock it was not recorded in transparency releases. What other undocumented meetings has he had with ministers since he was allowed to begin lobbying in July 2018?
Why did it take more than a month for Cameron to answer questions about his involvement in the Greensill scandal?
Cameron says that at no point did he break the rules on lobbying. He introduced these rules as prime minister; did he specifically design the rules so that his future activities would be out of scope? How does Cameron’s conduct differ from the behaviour that the rules were designed to prevent?
In 2010 Cameron condemned lobbying. He said: “We all know how it works. The lunches, the hospitality, the quiet word in your ear, the ex-ministers and ex-advisers for hire, helping big business find the right way to get its way.” Does he consider himself an “ex-minister for hire”? If not, why not?
