David Cameron's Greensill work prompts calls for lobbying laws to be reformed

Lobbying laws must be reformed to cover the activities of David Cameron and his relationship with Greensill, the Labour Party has said in the wake of the latest revelations about the former prime minister’s conduct after leaving office.

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, said a Queen’s Speech on May 11 should be used to bring forward new legislation to cover in-house lobbyists.

The current rules do not apply to Mr Cameron’s alleged lobbying of Rishi Sunak and the Bank of England because he was an employee of Greensill Capital, not a freelancer.

Previous attempts to introduce tougher laws were unsuccessful after opposition from Mr Cameron’s own government in 2014.

Ms Reeves said that “the immense access Greensill was given illustrates perfectly both the toothlessness of current rules, and Tory ministers’ complete disregard for any self-driven integrity when lobbying”.

Labour has also pledged to introduce a new “Integrity and Ethics Commission” if it wins the next election, which would target corruption and cronyism in Government.

Mr Cameron is alleged to have contacted ministers and high ranking officials in an attempt to persuade them to offer Covid support finance to Greensill Capital, a company run by his associate Lex Greensill.

The former Prime Minister accepted a job working for the firm after he left office in 2016.

Mr Greensill previously worked for the Government during Mr Cameron’s administration and had a Downing Street email address and business cards.

The fresh calls for new lobbying rules come after it was reported that Mr Greensill had cited the personal authority of Mr Cameron when pitching a multibillion-pound NHS loan scheme to senior officials during his time in Government.

The Sunday Times reported leaked emails that showed officials complaining that Mr Greensill was “acting like a semi-private sector agent selling various products to departments”.

Revelations about the relationship between Mr Cameron and Mr Greensill since 2012 have prompted calls for an official inquiry.

Greensill Capital, the firm Mr Cameron was lobbying for, is now in financial difficulty after the withdrawal of investors and has had a knock-on effect on Liberty Steel, a major British manufacturer.

Dame Angela Eagle, a member of the Treasury Select Committee, said the scandal surrounding Greensill mirrored some "behaviour that caused the financial crash in 2008".

"Imagine if Greensill lasted another five years. It might have been a systemic issue if it collapsed,” she said.

“Some of it is about whether our regulatory system is fit for purpose because of what it doesn't regulate," she said.

"We can’t establish any of that until we know in detail what happened."

Alistair Graham, a former Chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, said new laws were needed to cover the lobbying of employees.

“We need to cover the whole range of different types of lobbyists, whether they're in-house or whether they're working for some consultancy/lobbying company,” he said.

“I think we need to rethink the whole process of what exactly we want. We're presumably not going to deny ministers going into the private sector - it's how exactly you can monitor their activities if they then seek to influence government policy.”