David Cameron is in talks to join the law firm DLA Piper as a consultant – five years after theGreensill scandalthat showed he intensively lobbied officials on behalf of his failing employer.
The former prime minister, who also served as foreign secretary last year, is said to be having discussions about taking on an advisory position to help the firm with geopolitical risks.
The job would be in addition to Cameron’s existing portfolio of roles, with his current register of interests listing that he works as an adviser to Finback Investment Partners, a private equity firm, and Caxton Associates, a hedge fund. He also chairs the advisory board of a payments firm called PayCargo LLP.
It is understood Cameron’s role at DLA Piper,first reported by the Financial Times, would not involve lobbying on behalf of the company, which is the world’s third biggest law firm.
The former prime minister has had a series of jobs since he left No 10 in 2016, including lobbying the government on behalf of a since-collapsed financial firm,Greensill, which led to a scandalover his influence.
A parliamentary inquiry by the Treasury committee in 2021 found that it was inappropriate forthe ex-prime minister to send 62 messagesto former colleagues asking them to help Greensill, for which he worked and in which he owned stock options that could have been worth tens of millions of pounds. The inquiry foundhe had showna “significant lack of judgment”.
He also worked for a gene-sequencing company, Illumina, which won a £123m government contract during the pandemic; and an AI firm, Afiniti, from which he resigned in 2021.
Before he was foreign secretary, Cameron also appeared to have been helping todrum up supportfor a port project in Sri Lanka, which is part of the flagshipbelt and road initiativeof the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.
Cameron’s office and DLA Piper have been approached for comment. DLA Piper told the FT that discussions were under way and declined to comment further.
Separately, the Daily Mail reported on Thursday that Cameron had struggled to buy a Vodafone mobile phone contract for one of his children and there was a suspicion that this was because he was a “politically exposed person” (PEP).
The issue came under the spotlight originally whenNigel Farage, the Reform UK leader and MP, had his bank account at Coutts closed down because he had been classed as politically exposed.
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Financial regulations mean banks and other financial services providers are more reluctant to deal with politicians because they are potential targets for bribery and corruption.
In response to the concerns raised by Cameron’s experience, Farage told the Times: “The prejudice against PEPs is truly appalling. My debanking case exposed this. There are about 90,000 people on the PEP list and that includes people like my children who have been denied things wholly unfairly. The whole thing is an outrage.”
The Financial Conduct Authority issued a warning last year to banks that they must do more to make sure politicians and their families are treated more fairly and not denied services.