David Cameron has rejected claims that his extensive and persistent lobbying of ministers and officials on behalf of Greensill Capital was motivated by fear that his personal stake in the company was at risk. In evidence to two separate Commons committees, lasting more than four hours, he also insisted that he was not aware that the company, which has now gone bust, was in financial trouble when he argued for it to have access to a government Covid emergency loan scheme. But he admitted that, as a former prime minister, it was not appropriate for him to be lobbying government on behalf of a commercial firm in the way that he did. (See 3.13pm.) The hearings saw Cameron face fierce criticism from opposition MPs (eg, see 3.20pm and 4.46pm.) But there were no disclosures likely to make the episode more damaging to his reputation than it already has been. Here is my colleague Jessica Elgot’s assessment.
And here is the start of the PA Media story about Cameron’s evidence. David Cameron has accepted he had a “big economic investment” in Greensill Capital but denied that motivated his intense lobbying of the Government as coronavirus struck. The Conservative former prime minister said it was a “painful day” as he gave evidence to MPs on Thursday over his controversial lobbying of senior figures including Chancellor Rishi Sunak. Cameron placed calls and sent dozens of texts and emails to ministers and senior officials as tried to win access to Covid support programmes for the since-collapsed financial firm. Appearing virtually before the Commons Treasury committee, he insisted there was “absolutely no wrongdoing” in his lobbying attempts, but accepted that former prime ministers must “act differently”. Cameron confirmed he was a “regular” attendee of Greensill’s board meetings but said there was “certainly no sense of jeopardy” over the firm’s future as the coronavirus pandemic struck. Committee chairman Mel Stride questioned whether his “opportunity to make a large amount of money was under threat” as he sent a “barrage” of messages last spring when the pandemic broke. Cameron replied: “I have spent most of my adult life in public service. I believe in it deeply. “I would never put forward something that I didn’t believe was absolutely in the interests of the public good. “I did not believe in March or April last year when I was doing this contact there was a risk of Greensill falling over.” He repeatedly refused to say how much he stood to gain from his involvement with Greensill, saying it is a “private matter”, but he insisted that suggestions he was to make £60m are “completely absurd”. “I had a big economic investment in the future of Greensill, so I wanted the business to succeed, I wanted it to grow,” Cameron said. He said he had shares in the firm and was paid a “generous, big salary” which was “far more” than he made as prime minister, when he earned around £150,000 per year. The new adviser on UK ministers’ interests has said he will resign if his advice is ignored, as he promised a long-delayed report that could lift the lid on whether Boris Johnson broke the rules on declaring political donations will be published by the end of May. EU citizens are being sent to immigration removal centres and held in airport detention rooms as the UK government’s “hostile environment” policy falls on them after Brexit, according to campaigners and travellers interviewed by the Guardian. A surge vaccination campaign could be targeted at areas where there has been a rise in cases of the coronavirus variant first identified in India, Downing Street has hinted, as the prime minister admitted he was “anxious” about how quickly the variant is spreading in the UK. That’s all from me for tonight. Our coronavirus coverage continues on our global live blog. It’s here.