A LABOUR peer has suggested David Cameron’s ‘sleaze’ has “crossed the border” to Scotland and urged the UK Government to investigate Greensill’s links with the Scottish Parliament.
George Foulkes, Lord Foulkes of Cumnock, asked for assurances that the recently-announced UK Government inquiry into the Greensill scandal will be able to look at the firm’s involvement with the Scottish Government as well as deals made with steel billionaire Sanjeev Gupta.
READ MORE: Calls for probe into SNP minister's meeting with Greensill
Lord Foulkes asked the junior Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy minister Lord Callanan today whether the Westminster probe would look into Scotland, saying: “The Prime Minister has said that the Greensill inquiry has carte-blanche.
“Could the minister give the House an assurance that it will be able to look into the Scottish Government's failed deal with Gupta and Greensill for the Lochaber smelter, which has cost the taxpayer half a billion pounds lost, and also look into the private meetings over dinner, which the Scottish Government Minister Fergus Ewing had with them, where no records were kept and were not reported to the civil service?"
He added: "The Cameron sleaze seems to have crossed the border to the Scottish Government.”
It emerged on Sunday that Mr Ewing had a private meal at an upmarket Glasgow restaurant with Sanjeev Gupta, owner of the GFG Alliance, which owns Liberty Steel, as well as Lex Greensill – owner of Greensill Capital, which provided capital to GFG until its collapse last month.
No minutes of the meeting were taken, and Mr Ewing did not have any civil servants or advisers present.
The Scottish Government said Mr Ewing attended the dinner with Mr Greensill, Mr Gupta, Tim Haywood – who was later fired from fund management firm GAM Holdings for alleged misconduct – and Jay Hambro, but does not know who paid for the meal.
According to reports the Government response to a Freedom of Information request about the meeting said the “themes of discussion” were recorded by Mr Gupta’s company, GFG Alliance, and reported a “positive relationship” focused on “derisking” both parties while maximising plans for growth at the Lochaber smelter and hydro.
READ MORE: Industrial giant pledges jobs for Fort William in £94m investment
The collapse of the finance firm has potentially put thousands of jobs at GFG ‘s Liberty Steel at risk, as well as jobs at the Lochaber aluminium smelting plant, to which the Scottish Government has provided more than £500m of guarantees.
Lord Callanan responded: “I can only speak for the British government in this regard as [Lord Foulkes] I suspect knows very well.
“I can't comment or speak for the Scottish Government and for their dealings. Our review will examine matters for which the UK government is responsible and I would take up concerns with the First Minister of Scotland for what happens in Scotland.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel