Former prime minister David Cameron made approximately £7mn from the now-collapsed Greensill Capital according to reports published by the BBC. Panorama reportedly obtained documents revealing Cameron received the amount from cashing in shares he held in the company worth £3.3m in 2019, in addition to an annual salary of £720,000.
Cameron’s spokesperson refuted the report, saying he did not “receive anything like the figures quoted” and insisted that what he was paid was a “private matter”. This is the first time a figure has been revealed, and comes after he told a government-commissioned inquiry set up to investigate his dealings with senior politicians and Whitehall officials that he was paid “a good amount of money.”
Panorama said it had seen papers showing Cameron had accepted the terms of his payment by Greensill, with a £504,000 bonus to top up his salary paid out in 2019, summing up the total amount to £1.3mn for two-and-a-half years’ worth of part-time work. Cameron’s spokesperson said he “acted in good faith at all times” and there was “no wrongdoing in any of the actions he took”. They added that he had “no idea” until December 2020 that Greensill was in danger of failing.
The spokesperson said he lobbied the government “not just because he thought it would benefit the company, but because he sincerely believed there would be a material benefit for UK businesses at a challenging time.” They said Panorama’s report tried to “define a role for Cameron at Greensill that is totally at odds with the facts” and that he was a part-time adviser to the company with no executive or board responsibilities.
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner called the amount “utterly ludicrous”. She said, “It’s created the wild west where the Conservatives think it’s one rule for them and another for everyone else. The system causes more harm than good by giving a veil of legitimacy to the rampant cronyism, sleaze and dodge lobbying that is polluting our democracy under Boris Johnson and the Conservatives.”
She added that the Labour Party would ban former prime ministers from ever taking on lobbying jobs once they leave office and create an integrity and ethics commission to “stamp out sleaze”. Greensill collapsed earlier this year, and remains marred with controversies since.
