Cameron’s lobbyist friend ‘given his own Downing Street business cards’

Calls for an inquiry into David Cameron’s controversial links to financier Lex Greensill grew last night after it appeared the banker had been given his own No 10 email address and direct phone line.

The Labour party shared images of a Downing Street business card purporting to belong to Mr Greensill, which described him as a “senior advisor” to the “Prime Minister’s Office”.

The banker handed it to a figure in industry in 2012 shortly after he was appointed as an unpaid “supply chain finance advisor” to the Government, according to a Labour source.

Anneliese Dodds, the shadow chancellor, said it raised “further serious questions about the special access Lex Greensill was granted to the heart of government”.

Demanding a “full, transparent and thorough investigation”, she added: “The public have a right to know what happened here.”

Mr Greensill was also given a security pass and later a desk in the economic and domestic affairs secretariat in the Cabinet Office, according to The Sunday Times.

It also reported that the Australian financier enjoyed access to 11 Whitehall departments to create a financial product that his firm would go on to benefit from.

Mr Cameron has drawn heavy criticism over his links to the Australian banker, whose eponymous lending company went bust this month.

After leaving office, the former prime minister took up an advisory role with Greensill, allegedly telling friends he was in line to make $70 million from share options if the lender had been publicly floated.

He is also understood to have unsuccessfully petitioned Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, directly to try to help the firm secure new coronavirus funding.

Mr Cameron was last week cleared by a watchdog that examined whether he should have registered his lobbying activity.

The Labour party has called for an urgent inquiry into Mr Cameron’s links with Greensill. The party has highlighted that when he was prime minister, he ordered Tory peers to vote against proposals that would have stopped him lobbying for Greensill Capital.

The collapse of Greensill has sparked a crisis at Liberty, Britain’s third largest steel producer, raising concerns about the future of thousands of jobs.

Intrigue over Mr Cameron’s conduct deepened on Tuesday after it was claimed that last year he took a camping trip in the Saudi Arabian desert with Mr Greensill and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The alleged trip took place in January or February 2020, less than a year and a half after the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Mr Greensill boasted about the trip, and flight records for four private jets owned by Greensill Capital showed a series of visits to Saudi Arabia in the first three months of last year, according to the Financial Times.

The Committee on Standards in Public Life is undertaking a “landscape review” into the institutions, procedures and policies that are in place to uphold high standards of conduct in public life. This probe will consider issuing guidance on what is appropriate for former prime ministers before it concludes this autumn, it is understood.

Concerns about Mr Cameron’s conduct are expected to be raised in evidence sessions hosted by the committee. The ethics body has traditionally eschewed drawing attention to breaches and is not expected to name Mr Cameron in its inquiry report.

Lord Evans of Weardale, the former MI5 chief who heads the committee, said at the launch of the review last September: “As well as sharing any lessons learned and best practice, we will consider whether there are gaps or issues that require further work.”

He added: “Standards issues change and evolve over time. Organisations and institutions need to have the right culture and processes in place to maintain high standards of conduct, with the ability to properly and fairly investigate standards issues where necessary.”

Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, leapt to the defence of Mr Cameron on Tuesday, saying there was “no suggestion” the former prime minister “could not pursue another career after politics”.

Mr Kwarteng said Mr Cameron “did absolutely nothing wrong” and insisted “everything was above board”.

However he told the BBC: “If people [or] committees want to look at what happened, that is absolutely right for them to do that. What we have to do is maintain really high standards in public life.”

The Government was “always reviewing the rules”, “looking at new circumstances” and “trying to improve the existing rules and improve the system”, he said.

The Telegraph approached a representative for Mr Cameron and the Saudi Arabian embassy for comment.