David Cameron meeting offered as reward for talks with Greensill, says Tory donor

Exclusive: ‘I tried to understand what it was that they were doing, but it didn’t make any sense to me,’ says Crown Representative

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Businesspeople working in coveted Whitehall jobs were offered a meeting with David Cameron as a reward for holding talks with the financier Lex Greensill, a major Tory donor has claimed.

The offer came from Bill Crothers, the former head of government procurement who worked for Greensill capital at the same time as he was a civil servant.

But, according to crown representative Daniel Green, who says he was offered a meeting with David Cameron, his initial interaction with “shiny-suited salesman” Greensill left him puzzled and unconvinced the financier’s ideas were “a good idea for any government or anybody else”.

Crown representatives, a role also occupied by Greensill, are businesspeople brought in to government with a remit to help get value for taxpayers’ money.

The revelation threatens to deepen the scandal that has seen Boris Johnson’s government face allegations Tory sleaze is back and “bigger than ever”.

The row erupted after it emerged that former Tory prime minister Mr Cameron had texted chancellor Rishi Sunak on behalf of Greensill Capital.

The extent of the lobbying scandal across Whitehall became clear when it then transpired Mr Crothers had begun working for Greensill while he was still a senior civil servant.

Mr Green, who is currently the crown representative for the energy sector, and who gave the Tories £135,000 before the 2017 general election, said he met Mr Greensill not long after Mr Crothers departed government in late 2015.

He told The Independent that after Mr Crothers left the civil service “he got in touch with me and asked whether I could meet Lex. And promised me a meeting with David Cameron, as the reward”.

Mr Green said he did have a meeting with Mr Greensill, but was unimpressed with the banker and his ideas for government.

“I thought that he, which I said to Bill at the time, that he was like a shiny suited salesman. And I felt that I asked him the detail of what he was looking to do, and it didn’t make any sense to me whatsoever.

This shows sleaze is so endemic under the Conservatives, that access to figures like David Cameron is dangled as an incentive

Rachel Reeves, shadow cabinet office minister

“And his hope was that we [Green and other crown representatives] would be able to in some way, I don’t know, persuade government, or what have you, that it was a good idea. But actually I didn’t think it was a good idea for any government or anybody else. So I explained at the time and I wasn’t contacted since.”

Asked if the meeting with Mr Cameron took place, Mr Green said: “No. I tried to understand what it was that they were doing, but it didn’t make any sense to me. So that was the end of that.”

A spokesperson for David Cameron said: “David Cameron has no knowledge of this.” A spokesperson for Mr Greensill declined to comment.

Mr Crothers has been approached for comment.

Labour’s shadow cabinet office minister Rachel Reeves said:  "This shows sleaze is so endemic under the Conservatives, that access to figures like David Cameron is dangled as an incentive.”

"There are serious questions on the role crown representatives play especially those with such close ties to the Tories.

"We need complete openness from the government on the sleaze engulfing their party, and real measures from them on how they’re going to start tackling it now."

Labour has said the Greensill affair shows Tory sleaze is back and “bigger than ever”.

The lobbying scandal has now blown open wider still, with Mr Johnson under pressure to release the details of funding for his Downing Street flat renovations, following explosive accusations from his former key ally Dominic Cummings.

Mr Cummings had been implicated as the source of a leak of texts between Mr Johnson and James Dyson, which he denied in a vitriolic blog post on Friday.