The Guardian reported on April 24 that former Prime Minister David Cameron met with then-Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond just 15 months after he stepped down, according to communications obtained by his sister newspaper The Observer and the London-based investigative journalism bureau, a nongovernmental news agency. The two discussed the creation of a $1 billion UK-China fund. Under the Ministerial Code, which came out in May 2010, former British government ministers are prohibited from lobbying the government within two years of leaving public office. It is reported that Cameron was scheduled to be the vice chairman of the fund.
The reason why the meeting between the two of them did not attract the attention of the relevant oversight bodies was that Cameron had not yet begun to take up a formal position in the UK-China Fund at that time, the report said. This is said to highlight another loophole in the British government’s guidelines on the involvement of officials in lobbying after they leave office. As part of its transparency obligations, the U.K. Treasury previously disclosed that Cameron met with Hammond, who had served as foreign secretary in his cabinet, in October 2017 “to discuss China issues.” The Treasury disclosure did not say whether the conversation the two had included the UK-China fund that Cameron is helping to establish.
Cameron is understood to have told Hammond that “he plans to create a commercial UK-China fund to invest in innovative, sustainable and consumer-driven growth opportunities.” A spokeswoman for Cameron told The Guardian that “in 2017, Cameron held meetings with ministers from the UK and China about the possibility of establishing a fund to ensure that if it was established, it would be welcomed by both governments.” Hammond said Cameron briefed him on the investment fund “in the interests of transparency” and that he discussed the idea of the fund with Chinese officials during a visit to Beijing on Sept. 20, 2017.
The announcement was made during Hammond’s visit to Beijing just weeks after Cameron’s meeting with Hammond and at the conclusion of the ninth Sino-British Economic and Financial Dialogue in December 2017. Hammond said Cameron would take on “a chairmanship or similar role” at the fund. Media reports at the time said the fund and other new investment agreements were intended to usher in a new phase of the “golden age” of Sino-British relations. Cameron’s private initiative was highly appreciated by both governments.
In a joint statement after the meeting, the two governments welcomed the proposal to set up an initial $1 billion “bilateral investment fund” between the U.K. and China. However, Peter Dowd, then shadow chief secretary to the Treasury for the UK opposition Labour Party, wrote to Hammond requesting more details about the October 2017 meeting and whether the aforementioned UK-China fund was discussed there.
Dowd wrote to Hammond, “I hope you will be able to demonstrate some transparency on this matter as I am sure you will agree that it is of the utmost importance that the British public has confidence in the transparency and accountability of our system of government.” “As I pointed out to Mr. Cameron during the meeting, the government generally supports any private sector initiative that promotes British-Chinese cooperation,” Hammond said in a letter of reply to Dodd. He added that “Mr. Cameron had no specific plans for his role in the fund at that stage and did not ask for government support because the government was not involved in the staffing of private sector initiatives.”
This contradicts information provided by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACUPA), a British government agency, the report said. The committee said Cameron had made a proposal to it the same month and, according to the committee’s return letter, “made it clear that he would be the vice chairman of the fund. This would be a paid role.” The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments noted that “the role of the independent committee is to provide advice in accordance with the government’s rules and to make that advice transparent. All other matters, such as whether the rules are correct or whether ministers will be able to meet the former prime minister, are a matter for the government.”
While the relevant UK government guidelines require outgoing ministers and senior civil servants to seek the advice of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments when they want to take up a private sector role (either paid or unpaid) within 2 years of leaving government, the body does not have any power to enforce the advice it gives. In response, Bob Kerslake, a lifelong neutral member of the British Parliament’s House of Lords who was head of the British civil service, said the lobbying scandals that have occurred so far provide strong evidence for giving the committee more statutory powers.
Commenting on the current British regulatory system, Kerslake said, “It relies on people playing by the rules, and in some high-profile cases, people have not followed procedures. I think that has weakened it to the point where we need to revisit whether we need a statutory model.”
Cameron’s spokesman insisted that “David Cameron has never lobbied the UK government on the UK-China fund and there have been no work or tentative discussions about it during his time as prime minister. These discussions (in 2017) were in no way intended to seek financial support for the fund, but only to gain support for the concept of a bilateral fund.” The UK Treasury also stated that “the bilateral UK-China Investment Fund is a private, commercial venture. As with other private initiatives mentioned in the dialogue, it does not involve government involvement or funding.”
In addition, the U.K. government announced on Dec. 12 that it had begun an investigation into the bankrupt financial firm Greensill Capital over alleged lobbying violations by Cameron, who had worked as an adviser to the firm. Cameron joined the firm in 2018. Recently, it was reported that Cameron had privately contacted Rishi Sunak, the current British finance minister, and Matthew Hancock, the health minister, to benefit the company during his tenure at the firm. The company was founded by Lex Greensill, an Australian banker who was a senior advisor to Prime Minister David Cameron.
Recent Comments