Yahoo News Politics latest news: Rishi Sunak to swerve questions in Parliament on Greensill, as lobbying row grows
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Rishi Sunak will swerve a series of awkward questions in the Commons today, where he was to be grilled on his involvement in awarding Greensill Capital a Covid loan.
The Chancellor, who was sent private text messages by David Cameron last year to ask for help for the finance firm, had been expected to explain how it was accredited for the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Scheme (CLBILS).
It would have been the first time he had spoken in the chamber since March 9, more than a month ago. However, small business minister Paul Scully is appearing instead.
Labour sources noted that Mr Sunak had only appeared once between the end of November and the Budget, dodging three Treasury questions.
They added: "The Chancellor is happy to stand in front of a camera when it suits him, but won't answer questions about his involvement in the biggest lobbying scandal for a generation. What's he got to hide?"
But a Treasury source explained “After a year of these schemes being in place and a very detailed letter last week setting out the difference between them, Labour still don’t get that CLBILS is not a Treasury lead.”
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07:14 AMLabour frontbencher's Greensill plea 'very, very different', says colleague
Labour frontbencher's Greensill plea 'very, very different', says colleague
Labour's Anneliese Dodds has defended the party's shadow defence secretary, who also has been dragged into the Greensill Capital scandal.
Last May John Healy wrote to then-business minister Nadhim Zahawi urging him to grant £200million in Covid-19 loans "without delay".
But while attacking David Cameron and the Government, Ms Dodds insisted her colleague was acting "very much from the point of view of a constituency MP".
She told Radio 4's Today programme it was "a very, very different case", adding: "John Healy was doing what we would expect any constituency MP to do - standing up for jobs in his constituency. It was a very different approach, it appears potentially in the Treasury, where Conservative politicians were able to leapfrog over others who were seeking meetings with the Treasury and potentially the Chancellor."
Rishi Sunak was "not constituency MP for those working in the steel industry - he is custodian of public money", she added.
07:08 AMLabour implies that Rishi Sunak may have broken ministerial code
Labour implies that Rishi Sunak may have broken ministerial code
The investigation into lobbying ordered by Boris Johnson yesterday "may be an attempt to kick the issue into the long grass", Labour's Anneliese Dodds has said, as she raised questions over whether Rishi Sunak broke the ministerial code.
She told Radio 4's Today programme Rishi Sunak had released "only two text messages and it appears there may well have been phone calls - we don't understand what he was pushing his team to do".
The ministerial code calls for ministers "to act with objectivity - to treat lobbyists the same regardless of whether they have personal or political connections", she added.
Mr Sunak appeared to be "open to have repeated" conversations with David Cameron and Greensill, while others were "shut out of Government support", the shadow chancellor said.
"Why did there seem to be one rule for Conservative politicians and a different rule for those who desperately needed help?"
06:59 AMLabour calls for more widespread inquiry into Greensill's influence 'right across Government'
Labour calls for more widespread inquiry into Greensill's influence 'right across Government'
Labour's shadow chancellor has said she is "very concerned" about the possible involvement of Rishi Sunak in the Greensill scandal, as she calls for "a completely independent inquiry".
Anneliese Dodds told Radio 4's Today programme the probe ordered by Boris Johnson "seems to predominately focus just on the conduct of David Cameron himself, but we know that Treasury officials met with the company at centre of this scandal 10 times - far more meetings than any other lender seeking access."
She added: "We also know that the Chancellor in his own words 'pushed' his team to explore an alternative that might have worked for Greensill."
As a result the inquiry must "look at the influence of Greensill right across Government and doesn't just restrict this purely to a few instances of lobbying". u
06:42 AM'Extremist' Salmond mocked for enlisting Robert the Bruce
'Extremist' Salmond mocked for enlisting Robert the Bruce
Alex Salmond has been accused of pandering to extreme Scottish nationalists after his new party released a campaign video which spoke of breaking "the spine of English superiority” and he claimed the support of a King who died nearly seven centuries ago.
The former First Minister’s Alba Party on Monday broadcast a supposed endorsement from Robert the Bruce, who successfully led Scotland during the first War of Independence against England in the fourteenth century.
In the clip, 'The Bruce', who actually died in 1329, predicts that Mr Salmond’s new rival party to the SNP would “unite the clans”.
The bizarre video was in fact voiced by Angus Macfadyen, an actor who played the Scottish King in the 1995 blockbuster Braveheart, and is a supporter of Mr Salmond’s party.
