Greensill: Former PMs 'must never lobby government', says Gordon Brown

Labour's Gordon Brown says former prime ministers "must never" lobby government for commercial purposes, amid a row over the conduct of his successor.

David Cameron has been criticised for contacting ministers via text on behalf of finance firm Greensill Capital.

The Tory former prime minister broke his silence on the controversy on Sunday, saying he should have contacted ministers through "formal" channels.

But he said he had not broken codes of conduct or rules on lobbying.

Under current guidelines, former ministers and senior civil servants are banned from lobbying for two years after they leave government, a rule Mr Cameron followed.

But Mr Brown - who was prime minister from 2007 to 2010 - said: "Former prime ministers must never be lobbying for commercial purposes. Current ministers should not be entertaining such lobbying."

"It simply brings public service into disrepute," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

He suggested that if the existing rules cannot be made to work, new laws should be passed to stop former ministers lobbying for five years after leaving office.

Labour has said "many serious questions remain unanswered" after Mr Cameron's statement and he should be quizzed in Parliament.

It follows a series of newspaper reports over Mr Cameron's lobbying on behalf of Greensill Capital, where he began working as an adviser in August 2018, two years after he left No 10.

The firm was founded by Australian financier Lex Greensill, who worked as an unpaid adviser to Mr Cameron's government.

The reports revealed that Mr Cameron had texted Chancellor Rishi Sunak and other Treasury ministers over access to government-backed emergency loans during the Covid pandemic.

Mr Cameron said he had been trying to involve Greensill Capital in the government's CCFF (Covid Corporate Financing Facility) initiative, launched at the start of the crisis.

Mr Cameron rejected calls to comment on the affair until Sunday, when he released a statement to the media.

In it, Mr Cameron said he believed it had been "right" for him to contact government on behalf of Greensill Capital, as it was "involved in financing a large number of UK firms" at a time of "crisis for the UK economy".

But he said he understood the "concern" caused by how he had chosen to make contact with government figures.

"There are important lessons to be learnt," he added.

"As a former prime minister, I accept that communications with government need to be done through only the most formal of channels, so there can be no room for misinterpretation."

For three weeks the headlines kept coming. For three weeks David Cameron said nothing.

And now this - the former prime minister admits he made a dud judgement call.

Forget the rules; this is about the sniff test. Does it smell bad? Does it feel right?

Plenty had been saying no it doesn't, and now David Cameron appears to agree.

It's a lengthy statement from him, worthy of detailed examination.

But it boils down to this: he acknowledges texting and ringing the chancellor and going for a private drink with the health secretary, as part of his paid work for a private company, was a bad idea.

There's another point worth making too: journalism matters.

The work of the Financial Times and the Sunday Times, ferreting out awkward truths, is what has prompted this.

In his statement, Mr Cameron added: "In my representations to government, I was breaking no codes of conduct and no government rules."

He said that his suggestions about Greensill and the CCFF scheme were ultimately "not taken up".

He also said he had had "very little to do" with Lex Greensill during the financier's time working as a government adviser.

He added that Mr Greensill had been brought in as a government adviser by then-Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood, in 2011.

"As I recall, I met him twice at most in the entirety of my time as prime minister," he added.

"The idea of my working for Greensill was never raised, or considered by me, until well after I left office," he added.

The company recently collapsed, with the loss of 440 jobs.

Senior Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin, who chairs Parliament's Liaison Committee, said the lobbying row had revealed a "very casual" culture in the relationship between those at the top of government and business.

"This is pretty devastating, this is pretty corrosive," he told the Today programme.

He added: "I am not going to pass judgment on David Cameron, I think in some respects it's a distraction.

"What is more important is not who is lobbying, and even if you have a five-year ban as suggested by Gordon Brown, is it OK for an ex-prime minister to start lobbying after six years?

"You can't make laws stretch far into the future to bind people to previous employment, it just doesn't work."

Labour's Rachel Reeves said: "The events unfolding over the last few weeks stretch across government and affect thousands of people.

"Transparency and accountability are crucial and that requires the utmost openness from government to establish the full facts behind this scandal."