Cameron’s lobbying ‘did not take up very significant part’ of Treasury’s time, says Sunak
Dealing with David Cameron’s multiple texts, WhatsApp messages, emails and phone calls “did not take up a very significant part” of the Treasury’s time, Chancellor Rishi Sunak has told MPs investigating the Greensill lobbying scandal.
Earlier this year, ex-prime minister Mr Cameron was revealed to have bombarded government ministers and officials – as well as the Bank of England – with messages in a bid to win a now-collapsed finance firm access to government-backed COVID support schemes.
But, in a letter to MPs on the House of Commons Treasury committee, Mr Sunak dismissed the impact that Mr Cameron‘s actions had on his department’s decisions over Greensill Capital.
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Cameron questioned over messages sent to ministers
The chancellor wrote to the committee following the release of their report on the lobbying scandal in July.
In his response to the committee, Mr Sunak said: “The report expresses doubt that Mr Cameron’s lobbying did not result in the Treasury treating Greensill differently.
“On this I can only reiterate the evidence we have previously given to the committee.
“Greensill and supply chain finance did not take up a very significant part of my time, nor of [Treasury second permanent secretary] Charles Roxburgh’s, nor of the department’s overall, particularly compared with other COVID interventions.
“In line with the committee’s report, it was right to listen to Greensill’s initial proposal, which we promptly rejected.
“Given the acute financing needs of SMEs at the time, it was also right to invest a small proportion of time and resource in exploring the option of an industry-wide solution for supply chain finance.”
Chancellor Rishi Sunak told MPs the Treasury ‘acted entirely appropriately’
The chancellor also told MPs of his belief that the Treasury “acted entirely appropriately in relation to Greensill” and that he was “proud” of his department’s response to the COVID crisis.
Among Mr Cameron’s contacts with government ministers and officials were 14 text messages to the Treasury’s most senior civil servant Tom Scholar; eight WhatsApp messages and two phone calls to Mr Sunak; six texts, one call and one email to Treasury ministers John Glen and Jesse Norman; and two WhatsApp messages to an aide of Mr Sunak.
The Treasury committee previously published a vast number of Mr Cameron’s contacts, but some of Mr Scholar’s replies to the former prime minister were unable to be found when subsequently requested under Freedom of Information laws.
The Treasury said this was due to Mr Scholar’s mobile phone being reset after the device was automatically locked when an incorrect password was entered several times.
It was later revealed the Treasury had wiped all data from more than 100 government-issued mobile phones in 2020 because their users entered the wrong pin.
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Greensill paid ‘far more’ than PM salary
In its report on the Greensill scandal, the Treasury committee urged the government to review “its policies and use of information technology to prevent the complete deletion of government records by the misremembering of a password to a phone”.
But, in his response to the MPs’ report, Mr Sunak suggested his department would not be making any changes.
“While we accept that, in exceptional circumstances, this security feature could potentially result in the loss of information that may not have been transferred to the departmental record, in the vast majority of cases, all the substantive information held on the device will also be held on Treasury systems,” he wrote.
“Given that the aim of the Treasury’s policy is to ensure that all data is protected in circumstances where a device is either lost or stolen (where it could potentially be in the possession of malign actors), we consider that the balance of risk falls decidedly in favour of retaining the security feature in order to prevent unauthorised access to Treasury information or data, which is often particularly high-profile and sensitive.”
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The Royal Navy will get 25 new warships – and could get three more – as the government indicates where its planned rise in defence spending will go.
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps told Sky News there are 28 new ships and submarines in the design or construction stage at the moment for the UK’s armed forces.
He said 22 ships are “already in the system” – but there is less clarity over six new warships he announced for the Royal Marines today.
The defence secretary said that the government is committing to three of the new “versatile” ships for the Marines, “and then possibly another three as well”. He later said the final three are “in the design phase”.
He also announced two of the ships being built – type 26 and 31 frigates – will be equipped with land-attack missiles so they will be capable of attacking targets on shore.
Mr Shapps said this is a “very, very large shipbuilding programme, a lot of warships, the golden era of shipbuilding here”.
He added: “It’s all possible because just last month we agreed as a government to spend 2.5% of our GDP on our defence sector because we think it’s very, very important to make sure that those who would seek to do us harm are put off, that they are dissuaded because they can see that we’re serious about our defence.”
Labour has pledged to reach 2.5% of GDP on defence spending when economic conditions allow it, while the Conservatives have said they would reach that number by 2030.
But defence spending fell in the early years of the Conservative government, which has been in power for 14 years, and spending was not boosted when Ukraine was invaded in 2014 or 2022.
Mr Shapps accused Labour’s defence plan of posing a danger to security
Mr Shapps said the Tory pledge is different to Labour’s because the Conservatives have “set out a timeline”.
“We’ve also said how we would go about largely funding this, and that’s by reducing the size of the civil service, which is much bigger than it was before COVID,” he said.
“We want to get it back down to the size it was before and use that money to spend on defence.
“I have to say, as defence secretary, with everything that I know in this role, that I think that the Labour position presents a danger to this country because it will send a signal to our adversaries that we’re not serious about our defence if we won’t set out that timetable.”
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Labour’s shadow work and pensions minister Alison McGovern said she is “sceptical” about the Conservatives’ claim about how they will fund the spending rise.
She said Labour has had to pledge the rise for when the economy allows “because of what the Conservative Party have done to our economy” – as she accused Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak of implementing “big unfunded tax cuts”.
Ms McGovern added: “I think everybody would expect Rachel Reeves as the shadow chancellor to say, well, we will make our plans when we’ve got access to all of the books, all of the details of Ministry of Defence spending.”
Mr Shapps said the government did not spend as much on defence previously because countries such as China, North Korea, Iran and Russia were not such a threat.
The defence secretary added: “We were living in very, very different times.”
He said the government has also added £24bn to the defence budget over the past couple of years and the UK is “by a country mile the largest spender on defence in Europe, with the second largest in NATO after only the US”.
HMS Bulwark will not be scrapped before its end of service date. Pic: PA
Discussing the UK’s current fleet, Mr Shapps said sister ships HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark are due to come out of service in 2033-2034 but the defence secretary said they will not be scrapped before that.
Albion and Bulwark are currently used as the Royal Navy’s landing platform docks to transport the Royal Marines.
Mr Shapps also announced HMS Argyll and HMS Westminster, two frigates with a combined service of 63 years, are to be retired, with HMS Argyll sold to BAE Systems to be used to support apprentice shipbuilder training.
The new ships being built include Type 26 and Type 31 frigates in Scotland, Astute and Dreadnought submarines in Barrow-in-Furness, and Fleet Solid Support ships in Belfast and Devon.
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