All too many hospitality businesses unable to secure access to government funding throughout the pandemic became ex-businesses, and many that survived do so by a thread.
How galling for them to now look at the accusations of cronyism being levelled at the government and chancellor Rishi Sunak in particular over the handling of Greensill Capital, and specifically how they were granted access to tens of millions of taxpayer money under the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS).
Yesterday shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds was granted an ‘urgent question’ to the chancellor in parliament about the assistance provided to Greensill. Sunak was at least morally required to turn up and answer the question, but is allowed to nominate another minister to substitute for him, and did.
Business minister Paul Scully stood in place of the chancellor, and in fairness could do no more than read a statement and refer questions to answers previously given.
Anneliese Dodds barely able to disguise her outrage at the snub from Sunak, but still thanking Scully for his appearance, reeled off a litany of questions she would have put to the chancellor if he had turned up to answer them. It was impossible for Scully or any other minister to do so, which may have been part of Sunak’s decision to avoid the questions directly.
“The chancellor needed to come to the House today. The chancellor who told David Cameron he would push his team to amend emergency loan schemes to suit Cameron’s new employer”
Labour’s Anneliese Dodds accuses Rishi Sunak of “running scared” on Greensillhttps://t.co/3DFrClXAGW pic.twitter.com/2UOBQOEVTh
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) April 13, 2021
If government and Rishi Sunak are hoping this will go away, like so many other accusations of cronyism around public purse strings and the pandemic, it’s not looking likely.
This afternoon on twitter the political editor of BBC News, Laura Kuenssberg started voicing more questions, about a senior civil servant, William Crothers. The former Government Chief Commercial Officer at the Cabinet Office, a very senior civil servant, making commercial decisions about procurement, started working as a director of Greensill Capital while still working at Whitehall.
So, a very senior civil servant who was making commercial decisions about procurement, started working for Greensill even before he left Whitehall
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) April 13, 2021
As the questions and the fervour with which they are being asked grows, the options to continue ducking them diminish.
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Hospitality & Catering News: Hospitality looks on as Greensill cronyism unanswered. – 13 April 2021 – Hospitality looks on as Greensill cronyism unanswered.