GREEDY David Cameron was guilty of a “significant lack of judgment” in his lobbying for Greensill, a damning report by MPs has found.
The ex-PM was slammed by the Treasury committee for bombarding ministers with gushing texts begging for help in accessing Covid bailouts at the pandemic’s peak.
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Mr Cameron pocketed a whopping £1million a year and was flown around in private jets while in the pay of the now collapsed firm.
In a blistering report, MPs said Mr Cameron had used his cosy links with the top brass of government to try to get a deal for his new paymasters.
He sent nearly 100 WhatsApps, emails and phone calls love-bombing civil servants and senior ministers including Rishi Sunak.
In toe-curling messages, he gushed that ministers were doing a “great job” and suggested lunch dates before fishing for help and useful telephone numbers.
The committee accused Mr Cameron of a “significant lack of judgement” by using informal texts and calls to lobby for his new boss.
They warned he was only able to schmooze the Treasury this way because of “his previous position of Prime Minister”.
The Treasury should have told Mr Cameron to stop texting and go through the formal channels because of his “obvious personal links” to those at the heart of government, MPs said.
In an astonishing and humiliating putdown, the committee also suggested Mr Cameron showed poor judgment in not realising that Greensill was teetering on the brink of collapse while he worked there.
It has since gone under owing billions.
The report said that Mr Cameron “did not break the rules governing lobbying by former Ministers”.
But calling for lobbying rules to be massively beefed up, MPs warned the current system is “of insufficient strength and there is a good case for strengthening” it.
Treasury ministers and mandarins acted with “absolute integrity” in refusing Mr Cameron’s lobbying requests, the report found.
But their “unwillingness to accept” that Mr Cameron’s status as a former PM could have held any sway is a “missed opportunity for reflection”, it warned.
Mel Stride, chairman of the Treasury Committee, said: “Our report sets out important lessons for the Treasury and our financial system resulting from both Greensill Capital’s collapse and David Cameron’s lobbying.
“The Treasury should have encouraged David Cameron into more formal lines of communication as soon as it had identified his personal financial incentives.
“However, the Treasury took the right decision to reject the objectives of his lobbying, and the Committee found that Treasury Ministers and officials behaved with complete and absolute integrity.”
Mr Cameron said: “While I am pleased that the report confirms I broke no rules, I very much take on board its wider points.
“I always acted in good faith, and had no idea until the end of last year that Greensill Capital was in danger of failure.
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“However, I have been clear all along that there are lessons to be learnt.
“As I said to the Committee, I accept that communications of this nature should be done in future through only the most formal of channels.
“I agree that the guidance on how former Ministers engage with government could be updated and was pleased to provide some suggestions on this to the Committee.”
