Rishi Sunak “pushed” Treasury officials to try to help Greensill Capital gain access to a Bank of England coronavirus support scheme after being lobbied by David Cameron, it emerged on Thursday.
The release by the Treasury of two text messages from the chancellor to the former UK prime minister, who was a paid adviser to the collapsed finance group, sparked claims by Labour that Sunak had broken the ministerial code.
Sunak’s aides said he released the text messages to prove that he acted properly throughout the saga. The Treasury ultimately resisted pressure from Cameron and refused to let Greensill take part in the BoE scheme.
The extent of Cameron’s lobbying was laid bare after Sunak, in a letter to the shadow chancellor, Anneliese Dodds, revealed the former prime minister lobbied three different Treasury ministers on behalf of Greensill.
Sunak said Cameron “reached out informally by telephone” to him and fellow Treasury ministers Jesse Norman and John Glen, as Greensill desperately sought funds.
Sunak pointed out in his letter to Dodds that Cameron’s pleas to various ministers were rejected, and that the Treasury refused to allow Greensill access to the BoE Covid Corporate Finance Facility.
But Dodds claimed “the chancellor’s decision to open the door to Greensill Capital put public money at risk” and that he might have broken the ministerial code.
Dodds seized upon details of a text message sent by Sunak to Cameron on April 23 last year, separately released by the Treasury, in which the chancellor said he had “pushed” his officials to see if there was a way of admitting Greensill to the BoE scheme.
Sunak said in his text to Cameron that a Greensill proposal “did require a change to the Market Notice” — the rules of the BoE scheme — adding: “I have pushed the team to explore an alternative with the Bank that might work.”
Dodds said the message suggested that “Greensill Capital got accelerated treatment and access to officials, and that the chancellor pushed officials to consider Greensill’s requests. Sunak’s aides “totally rejected” the claim that the chancellor broke the ministerial code.
Greensill went on to become an accredited lender for another of the government coronavirus loan programmes for companies, called the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme.
Greensill’s participation in that scheme is being investigated, and state guarantees on loans issued by the group have been suspended “on a precautionary basis”, Sunak said in his letter to Dodds.
Sunak’s allies said Cameron sent the chancellor “multiple messages” about Greensill, although he replied by text only to two of them.
The first, sent on April 3 last year and beginning “Hi David”, said that Sunak was “stuck in back-to-back calls” but he promised to call back. There was a call shortly afterwards.
The second, sent on April 23, said Sunak was “pushing” officials to see whether a way could be found to admit Greensill to the BoE’s Covid Corporate Finance Facility. “No guarantees, but the bank are currently looking at it and Charles should be in touch,” it said. “Best, Rishi.”
Charles Roxburgh, second permanent secretary to the Treasury, held nine meetings with Greensill but ultimately rejected Cameron’s entreaties to give the finance group access to the BoE scheme, where the central bank purchased companies’ commercial paper.
The Treasury declined to publish Cameron’s texts, saying: “These communications were made by David Cameron in his capacity as an employee of Greensill, and with an expectation of confidence.”
Sunak’s allies said the Treasury was not obliged under freedom of information laws to release the chancellor’s texts but wanted to show “beyond doubt that there was no wrongdoing and that he acted with integrity and propriety”.
