'Tory sleaze is back and it's bigger than ever'

Labour MP Rachel Reeves has slammed former Prime Minister David Cameron for working in his "own private interest" during the height of the coronavirus pandemic after it was claimed Mr Cameron contacted government officials to get financial services company, Greensill Capital, access to a government-backed loan scheme.

Reeves told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: "Tory sleaze is back, it is bigger than ever, and we are seeing the erosion of trust in our politics because of the behaviour by a few at the top of the Conservative Party.

"I don’t want any stone to go unturned in these investigations, but let’s be clear - standards have fallen so far in the last 11 years under this Conservative government.”

She added: "What we want to see - we wanted this week, and that is why we had a vote on it - to have a proper inquiry.

"Not chaired by one of Boris Johnson’s friends, a very close friend of the Conservative Party is Nigel Boardman, who is doing the review, but a proper independent inquiry that has teeth and has the chance to make recommendations on how to clean this up.

"Because this isn’t just about Greensill, Greensill is the tip of the iceberg.”

A series of probes have been commissioned, including by Downing Street, as Westminster looks to understand the role Cameron played in securing Whitehall access for Greensill, which was selected as an intermediary lender for some Government Covid-19 support loans at the start of the pandemic, and whose collapse now risks thousands of jobs, particularly in the steel sector.

The saga deepened last week after it emerged the former head of government procurement, Bill Crothers, took a part-time position with the failed firm while still in his Whitehall post.